The benefits of layering.

 

An interesting  sunrise but the strong, biting wind coming from Svalbard dispels any thought of our pausing to watch it. We hurry out to the warmth of the car . Winter is stirring even if it's not quite reached here yet. The students, who have enjoyed a month of mild and sunny weather, are about to discover the benefits of  'layering' . 

Halloween now dominating the bakers window display. A tray of freshly baked ghouls take pride of place . They're placed at just the right height so that little ones on their way to school can see them. Canny marketing.

Inside there's a further selection of terrifying biscuits on the lower, toddler height, shelves of the display cabinet.

Scottish bakers may not have the finesse of French bakers but they provide old staples baked exactly as they have always been . The strength of culinary tradition should not be underestimated.

The cashmere shop has a new 'winter' display. This is the land of the tartan pashmina. Angus looks grumpily at a mannequin wearing a black tie with a tweed jacket. 

The strawberry lady that we've assumed to be Polish is, in fact, from Romania. She thinks that tomorrow will be her last day. As soon as she's harvested as much of the crop as she can she's off to Bucharest for some warmth. ' Scotland lovely country, lovely people, but so cold ' she says by way of explanation. Having sold strawberries for twelve hours a day for seven months solid he has had a remarkably remunerative year. The strawberries have a hint of that late season whiteness and crunchiness but we buy three punnets as they're still way better than the imports in the supermarket..

Birds we've lost :https://birdhistory.substack.com/p/birds-weve-lost

Were our ancestors better off ? :https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/life-after-dark-ancient-night