Christmas Eve music

We're out early. The shops open at seven this morning but many will close at lunchtime and not re-open until Friday. We stop off for some extra milk and a pineapple and are surprised how busy the supermarket is. Young mothers roam the aisles with a killer look in their eyes.

The EV charging unit by the club house is not being used. A chance for us to get a partial top-up . I spoke to the BMW garage yesterday and they promise to get ( another ) replacement charging unit here by the weekend. The phrase ' Good luck with that !' springs to mind.

By the time we've followed the path that runs parallel to the fourth hole on the golf course the sun is rising. We watch the quail running in and out of the gorse bushes around the bunkers. There are lots of quail this year. Twenty or so live in the brambles that line the farm track that leads to the wee house. They are not the smartest of birds. They like to congregate in the middle of the track and every morning I have to get out of the car and shoo them away .

The cathedral ruins stand out sharp against the sun rise. In its day the cathedral must have been quite a sight. The trenches that had been dug so the hedge fund manager could have fibre optic cables laid have all ( finally ) been filled in. Our neighbours in town can once again park outside their front doors. 

Starbucks have decorated their Christmas tree with aprons and coffee cup shaped decorations. At least they've made an effort. Do the same decorations appear in all their branches ?

The warship has returned ( look carefully and - despite the camouflage - you can see it ) and is now anchored peacefully in the bay. Looking out to sea I'm more than ever convinced that what our neighbour saw earlier in the week was fishermen retrieving their creels. The likelihood of Marines clambering across these razor sharp rocks must surely be remote.

The ravens and crows are still settled in the fields around and about . They seem to be over wintering here. The garden at the last wee house before Denmark continues to attract scores of sparrows and even more finches. They happily consume grain and fat balls at a feverish pace. The feisty robin which settled on the kitchen windowsill every morning in early December has disappeared. Let's hope he returns soon. On our way back up the track towards the courtyard we see a most wonderful rainbow.

So begins a quiet Christmas Eve in an unseasonably warm Scottish town on the North Sea coast. The weather forecast says this may be the warmest Christmas Eve on record which is not to say it's warm in the accepted sense of the word.

A double dip of music . Some robustly no nonsense singing from the auld kirk in town which will soon host the BBC's watch night service :https://youtu.be/Ex4FCo5KA38?t=5220

And a second clip today from Hamburgs sparkling new - and hugely expensive - concert hall : https://youtu.be/O8btSbfFBXU?t=4998

Unexpected history :https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/bing-crosby-struggled-sing-white-christmas-troops-most-difficult-thing-his-career

Not nearly as much fun as believing its aliens or the Chinese :https://www.space.com/space-exploration/search-for-life/planes-drones-or-ufos-what-are-people-seeing-in-the-new-jersey-sky

Stumbled across this. A new way of getting to understand things in depth :https://www.syllabi.directory/