An unusual lupin.

The decorator has ordered the wrong door paint for the house in town. What was supposed to be a cheerful red has along the way turned into a sludge like brown. A fresh batch of paint is ordered from Little Greene and should be here on Monday. In the meantime the decorators get on with painting the gutters. We are surprised to discover that the three teenage lads carefully work around a sparrows nest so as not to disturb it. They even turn their radio off.

The shopping street is the busiest we've ever seen it. Brilliant sunshine has brought out the tourists. It's a sunny and cloudless 18 degrees which is tropical for these parts. In front of the cathedral a bus disgorges a large group of jet lagged looking folk wearing identical 'Watoga State Park' tee shirts. Each tee shirt is emblazoned with a puce coloured flower which could be a rhododendron but might as easily be something more exotic.  It's as if this safety in numbers dress code offers some talismanic protection against the dangers of a small Scottish coastal town. The Watogans stand on the pavement and  look at the cathedral ruins with an air of mild disappointment. 

There are summer schoolers sunbathing on the college lawns.

Angus is surprised to discover that the lupin bed has one blue and white plant that seems to have no relationship to any of the others. This is a miracle (or mystery) of self seeding.

I'd not heard about this :https://theconversation.com/tongas-volcanic-eruption-could-cause-unusual-weather-for-the-rest-of-the-decade-new-study-shows-231074