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/