Back on Friday

The weather is getting better and we're off to try a couple of restaurants to celebrate 'The Fonts' birthday. We'll be back on Friday.

The parcel

 

Elder sister arrives at the back door. She has taken to joining us for breakfast. A chance for her to have some peace and quiet before 'Puppy' appears.

It's rained heavily overnight but this morning the sky holds out some hope that the day will remain dry. The Royal Navy ship has left the bay with its complement of Marines and headed off into the North Sea. The pheasants squawk and scatter as we walk along the track to the shore. The German family are already down on the sand. They wave cheerfully. Perhaps there is some truth behind national stereotypes ? I'm not sure how many Scots families would be out and about at six thirty. 

With many of the university staff away town is quiet and parking is once again easy. We have the place to ourselves apart from a few locals who are out and about opening up shops or visiting the bakers.

It's 'The Fonts' birthday tomorrow. The courier shows up with a large box of Swedish delicacies. We're #1 on his schedule. The box is one of those extremely heavy refrigerated ones. The courier grumbles as he puts it down and Angus grumbles as he picks it up. It's made it from Uppsala to Stockholm to Edinburgh and then onto the Fife coast  in under 24 hours which is some sort of DHL miracle.

The box contains all sorts of brands that are hard to get in the UK.

Angus is unsure what is worse. Marinated herring,

Fish roe,

or Reindeer fillets .

There is not a single bar of chocolate so Angus has less than zero interest in the boxes contents. 'The Font' is delighted.

The things you learn :https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-enduring-mystery-of-how-water-freezes-20240617/

Razor sharp.

 

Rain one minute, tropical heat the next. Welcome to a Scottish summer. This morning there's a Royal Navy vessel moored a hundred meters offshore. A group of swimmers are leaping out of a Zodiac and landing on the rocks where the Cormorants perch. The Cormorants aren't happy about this. The Royal Marines or Special Boat Squadron or whoever they are ignore us. The farmers wife says they come here every year. Last summer we were at the house in town while the kitchen was installed which may explain why this martial activity comes as a surprise. Rather them than me - the rocks must be razor sharp.

A drive down the coast to the farm shop. All the farm shops are fancy but this one serves the upmarket Edinburgh crowd who have summer homes here. The summer homes are being 'opened up' ahead of the school holidays.

The shop has garlic at a price the French would consider outrageous.

Back in town many of  the apartments that have been let out to students during term time have had a brusque makeover with a can of paint and are now being let out to the £3000 a week summer crowd.

One of the apartments has a plastic wreath on the front door  and plastic flowers in the window boxes. Someone clearly though this would make the place look 'luxurious '. 

With the students gone the age profile of the town has shifted from early twenties to late fifties. Judging from the hoardes of Madrilenos that are already here it must be some sort of Spanish holiday or perhaps they're escaping the heat ?

Human kindness is widespread :https://x.com/in_bloke/status/1802363957941809450?s=48

AI as smart as a SCOTUS judge ? :https://adamunikowsky.substack.com/p/in-ai-we-trust-part-ii

Arrogant gulls.

The weather has been awful.  When BBC Scotland forecasts heavy rain you know there's going to be HEAVY rain. Overnight it's been torrential. It's also decidedly cold - even by North Sea standards

This morning its brighter although the cloud to the North suggests more weather is on the way.

We stop off at the farm shop for some strawberries. They were picked ten minutes ago. We take three punnets. The Polish lady behind the counter is hoping for some sunshine and warmth to bring her crop on.

The gulls are back . They have an attitude that signals that they, and not the townsfolk, are the masters of this place.  The house in town is about to welcome friends from Florida. Let's hope the gulls that were nesting on the neighbours flat roof last year have decided to move elsewhere. Perhaps I should call to suggest  ear plugs might be worth packing ?

The supermarket has a section of exotic Eastern European foods.

Some bright spark has decided that French Fries fall in this category. And to think Scotland used to have a world beating educational system.

Is everyone going to see Taylor Swift ? : https://www.cnbc.com/2024/06/14/taylor-swift-london-eras-tour-delay-bank-of-england-rate-cut.html

Do we ? :https://www.iflscience.com/subvocalization-why-do-we-have-a-voice-in-our-heads-when-we-read-74659

Quaff.

Our polling cards arrive for the July 4th election. Voting will be in the village hall between 7 am and 10 pm.  Being a farming community most of the villagers will have cast their ballot by 9 am. We see two more political posters In St Andrews yesterday -  this brings the grand total to three - two for the Lib Dems and one for the Nationalists. Nothing as vulgar as a poster has appeared in any of the windows in the village. The passions raised by this election  are decidedly muted.  France , by contrast, is going to the polls in a way that makes Americas election politics look almost tame.  A man in the French department gives a lunch time talk in which he forecasts that Macron will resign if the far right wins the election that's been called. 

The champagne stocks sold out in the wine merchants. 2500 graduates and their families quaff huge amounts of the stuff. 

The kilt makers seem to have had an excellent summer. In these parts kilts are not going out of fashion.

Through an archway we catch a glimpse of the university great and good heading off for a ceremony to mark the end of the 2024 academic year. You couldn't stage a photo like this if you tried.

A few bars and restaurants still targeting the remaining parents or more probably the last students wanting a slap up dinner before they head home.

Smart plants:https://www.sciencealert.com/this-flower-could-be-defined-as-intelligent-scientists-say

Dark humour. Considering this is Russia and North Korea the 3rd paragraph could have been phrased differently :https://tass.com/economy/1790187

As expected.

Scotland lose 5-1 to Germany in the European soccer championship. This does not come as a surprise. The morning news describes the German team as being 'brutally efficient '. Local hostelries did a roaring sorrow drowning trade late into the night. On the election front the governing party continues to slip in the polls. This, also, does not come as a surprise. Angus is left to wonder why our politicians  seem incapable of understanding that their actions ( or the lack of them ) have consequences. Perhaps parents no longer teach their children such things ?

Friday saw the last of the graduation ceremonies. Leading the procession back to the chapel the piper squeezes every inch of bathos out of this schmaltzy old White Heather Club number :https://youtu.be/SCSB_BiNSZo?t=11.The university now goes into hibernation for two months and the towns centre of gravity shifts from the calm cathedral end to the busy golf club end. The houses that back onto the wee house in town have been taken for three months ( as they are every year ) by sensible  American families fleeing the heat of the Great Plains. The family that has moved in on the other side of the garden wall introduce themselves and tell me a heat dome has descended over Wichita. I'm not quite sure what a heat dome is ( it's not something that's likely to bother us here ) but it sounds like the sort of thing you'd want to avoid. Grandma and Grandpa have been brought over and assigned the 'luxury' ( that word again ) guest suite at the end of the garden. I'm not so sure they find 15 degrees entirely to their liking. They dine al fresco and Grandma can be heard telling her daughter in law that they're comfortable but " We sure as hell won't need air conditioning ".

Out here on the coast the lawn outside the back door is home to the sparrow family. 18 of them visible this morning. The 19th finally emerges from a flower bed. The Jackdaw chicks are getting less noisy although everything is relative. You know you're in a quiet place when you know how many of this years sparrow brood have survived their first week.

Happy dogs on the beach.

The carpet fitters have finished. The new carpet is perhaps a tad too colour coordinated.

Improbable question of the day :https://observatory.wiki/Can_Teething_Predict_How_Fast_You_Will_Grow%3F

A fun place in Finland if you like seclusion and water :https://www.project-o.fi/

Storks that haven't hatched in 600 years are re-appearing at this farm :https://knepp.co.uk/rewilding/

Partying.

This has arguably been the first year things have returned fully to normal after the dislocation of Covid. Old traditions are again running like clockwork. The piper leads the procession out of the graduation hall with the decidedly jaunty tune  'Campbeltown Loch I wish you were Whisky I would drink you dry ' : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vb_P46gNf_k . The Principal has a wry smile on her face that may indicate she's quietly in agreement with the choice of music.

Each of the graduation ceremonies is small enough to keep it personal. I'm guessing two hundred or so youngsters every morning and the same number again in the afternoon. Anything larger and the town would be swamped. As it is the hotels and restaurants are kept more than busy with the confluence of golfers and parents. After today all  two thousand eligible students will have graduated and be readying for the off .What adventures await. Town will be very quiet.

This is our favourite time of the year here. It's a joy to see a Clackmannanshire cab driver holding a bottle of Coke chatting to a Singaporean surgeon as they wait for their  offspring to appear. Education is a great leveller. 

On the beach this morning twenty or so surfers. There's not really a swell but this doesn't seem to be dampening their enjoyment.

Six black Volvos parked in a line. 'The Font' tries to get in one that isn't ours. It would seem that the entire rental fleet at Edinburgh airport is made up of shiny black Volvos. We see two American golfers arguing over a parking spot. One is driving a black rental Volvo another a huge gold metallic Mercedes. The Volvo man has done a neat 90 degree turn in front of the Mercedes to secure the spot and isn't going to relinquish it. " Think ! Of !! Others !!!' shouts the aggrieved and apoplectic loser. He also says some other things.

We have chosen a new car but more of that next week. I can promise you it won't be black.

Tartan plus fours continue to sell well at the golf shop by the traffic lights. I guess if you see someone wearing these at a golf club in France or America you'd know that they've been to St.Andrews.

Attention is moving to the European soccer championships. It's a long, long time since the national team last qualified for these. Tonight Scotland is playing Germany in Munich. Between students, golfers and locals the bars here are going to be mega busy. This self deprecating piece of music has somehow become popular and started playing everywhere. It is very annoying  :https://youtu.be/gvi0GtQCEcQ?t=1 Whether the bar goers end up celebrating or ( more probably ) commiserating with the Scots team there will be much partying.

Sgian-dubhs forbidden.

An Italian lady in a fur coat crossing the road ahead of us. She's here for graduation and is talking, animatedly, to her daughter. They've been to the cashmere store. It's quite clear that the Italian lady is cold and not at all happy. She'd expected the weather to be chillier than Turin but 'Mamma Mia ! Not this cold '. 

Lots of parents - and dogs - waiting outside chapel to see the new graduands head off to the morning ceremony. The dogs seem to be more relaxed than their owners.

Saturday night is the graduation Ball. This is as close as it gets to Bacchanalia  here. That last night before student life becomes a thing of the past. A peculiarly Scottish Health and Safety requirement is for attendees not to wear their Sgian-dubhs :https://www.yourunion.net/about/news/article/7090/Graduation-and-Summer-Ball/

The picture framers have done a jolly job on the old and somewhat drab water colour of the Missel Thrush. The red of the frame is the exact shade of the red of the Rowan berry in the birds beak.

21st century annoyances :https://psyche.co/ideas/why-small-annoyances-can-harm-us-more-than-big-disruptions

The French life style :https://bigthink.com/strange-maps/global-obesity-rates/

Exuding enthusiasm.

 

Three weeks and a day to the election. So far we've received one leaflet from the SNP candidate and another from The Liberal Democrat. Not a peep from anyone else. The other parties seem to have decided our constituency is a two horse race.

The fields covered in a strange golden light this morning. The sun, caught between two layers of cloud, has an intensity that you could almost cut with a knife. 

19 of the 24 young sparrows have survived into their second week. They scamper around on the ground under the bird feeder looking for grain. We also have 3 Jackdaw chicks. We know this because they let their mother, and the world, know they were hungry at 4:13 am. Sleep and the croakings of a hungry Jackdaw chick are incompatible.

In town the third day of graduation ceremonies. Six university porters ( five gentlemen and one lady ) are proudly carrying the 15th century maces along the street. The figure of the Principal in her flat bunnet follows on behind. She has a different speech for each of the ten events and somehow manages to maintain and exude enthusiasm all through the week. 

About 1 in 10 of the new graduates are wearing kilts. Assuming 25% of the students are Scots and adjusting for a 40-60 gender split that seems about right. 

Everything is well ordered apart from adoring mothers who run across the road to kiss their offspring. Male students at the receiving end of this adoration want to die of embarrassment. Other students cheer the mothers on. Two policemen stand at the side of their brand new Skoda EV patiently answering questions from Spanish tourists wondering what's happening. Angus quietly wonders how a Skoda EV would perform in a high speed car chase. There again high speed car chases are not common in these parts.

There are another six of these happy ceremonies to go before the students go and the town settles down into its summer torpor and prepares to welcome the inrush of golfers.

The carpet layers have finished as have the painters. The roofers have knocked a pantile off the roof but promise to be here today with a replacement. Three swallows are nesting in the vennel that runs between the Wee House in Town and our neighbour. On a day when nothing seems to be happening a lot is.

Taking over from your doctor :https://www.sensible-med.com/p/healthcare-workers-in-the-ai-revolution

I'm surprised but not surprised :https://www.npr.org/2024/06/11/nx-s1-4994426-e1/wild-elephants-may-have-names-that-other-elephants-use-to-call-them

A meticulous packer.

A low of 7 and a high of 14 forecast for today. That's decidedly chilly. Our plans to have dinner in the garden , once again, put on hold. The election campaign rumbles on with each side miraculously promising more and better services without raising taxes.

On the beach the lady with the two black labradors stops to tell us that her daughter is graduating from Edinburgh in three weeks time. We barely know the woman but she's clearly very excited. We discuss places to park in peak tourist season. The daughter is off to Osaka on an EFL teaching assignment at the end of July. Mother will be joining her for two weeks in March. " I've told my husband that if I've got to sit in a plane for twelve hours I'm going business ".

This morning we pass a golfer who is a meticulous packer and who is oblivious to the fact his golf clubs and suitcases are blocking the pavement .  We silently marvel at the precision with which he's laying out his shoes in the back of the car. This is not the 'throw things in and hope for the best' approach to packing.

By the harbour a dog leaps balletically into the water in chase of a duck.  It's owner shouts out ' Come back ' in ever more strident tones. The dog, as all dogs do, suffers from selective hearing impairment. The duck remains unperturbed and the dog remains mischeviously in the water.

We walk back up the hill to open up the house for the carpet fitters. The sun has gone and the clouds are starting to build. The chapel choir , heading off for the daily graduation service, slow our progress. A Canadian man wanders up and asks where he can get a 'strong' cup of coffee. From inside the chapel the unmistakable sound of  Auld Lang Syne being sung. Happy parents are  taking photos and walking on the freshly cut grass . Some, like the Canadian man, are nursing hangovers.

Sleep - or lack of it :https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/some-people-with-insomnia-think-theyre-awake-when-theyre-asleep/

Hay fever :https://www.sciencenorway.no/allergies-asthma/why-are-so-many-more-people-developing-asthma-and-allergies-now-compared-to-before/2375110

The UK election seems so uneventful by comparison:https://www.thisamericanlife.org/833/come-retribution

Optimism in the air.

Graduation week. Our favourite week of the year. The town full of happy youngsters and proud parents. Optimism is in the air. In Starbucks the unusual sight of a mother already wearing a garden party hat although the first ceremony is three hours away.  Fathers in suits much in evidence. Suits are an item of clothing rarely seen in university towns. Half of the students are 'international' so there's an exotic side to some of the parents costumes. They probably think the  local boys in kilts are equally exotic. Teenage siblings brought along for the occasion trudge around looking as if they're torn between being soul crushingly bored and almightily irritated. Usually we're among the first to get to the supermarket but this morning there are lots of London folk buying croissants. The woman behind the bakery counter is very busy and isn't at all sure this is a ' Good morning '.

Rain is forecast around lunchtime but this morning the sky is mostly blue.

The upmarket ladies outfitters has some very chic golfing attire in the window.  Look closely and you can make out the Royal and Ancient clubhouse and the Swilken Bridge. 

The Principals cliff top garden with its view over the beach looking spick and span ahead of a series of garden parties. The lawns cut to perfection. In the sunshine you could almost think you were in the South of France.

Some last minute railing painting down by the graduation hall. It's clearly never too late to do some sprucing up.

This morning the carpet fitter is due at the wee house in town. He's driving from Perth so we've told him to arrive early if he wants to find a parking spot.

Well, I never :https://www.sciencealert.com/alien-looking-species-seen-for-first-time-ever-in-oceans-darkest-depths

Not a subject I expected MIT to write about :https://news.mit.edu/2024/unexpected-origins-modern-finance-tool-discounting-0606

Going back to Jamaica :https://theconversation.com/returning-a-170-year-old-preserved-lizard-to-jamaica-is-a-step-toward-redressing-colonial-harms-229339