Picking up the pace

This is peak off-season - if such a thing can be said to exist. The dark, wind swept  tourism void between Christmas and New Year. Canny foreign golfers know this is the one time they can be sure of getting on the Old Course but apart from that the place is deserted.

In the absence of students - or indeed of anyone else -  the trendy cocktail bar is trying to tempt in passers by with 15% discounts. Last night the place was completely empty which suggests 50% might have been a more market savvy proposal. The fact the cocktail bar now occupies what used to be the Salvation Army hall makes us chuckle. Their 'Blood and Fire' logo is still on the wall  above a sign offering 'bottled beer'. How the world has changed in 50 years.

Rain showers this morning. They start the second we head out of the front door and continue until the very moment  we return. Then they stop. What are the chances of that ?

The chapel is open and the lights are on.

We pop in to get out of the drizzle and sit in one of the pews by the entrance. We're immersed in the smell of freshly applied Pledge furniture polish. The two cleaning ladies greet us with a slightly irritated 'Good morning' then studiedly get on with their work. They bustle around us. Someone, presumably one of the music  scholars, is playing Auld Lang Syne on the organ. There is nothing like Auld Lang Syne being played to tell you the old year is picking up its pace and the new one is already fidgeting impatiently  in the shadows.

At the crossroads by the fountain the super minimalist Christmas lights form  a  Saltire. How ( unintentionally ) cool is that ?

Hogmanay music #2. The time of the year when Celtic sentiments are dusted down . This New Year staple was getting an early airing in the trendy cocktail bar yesterday. 'There must be a place where hearts of olden glory grow young' will soon be belted out in village halls  throughout the land :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGNviQP7qjs

Squirrels :https://www.popsci.com/science/hibernation-science-squirrels/

This is positive ? :https://danieldrezner.substack.com/p/economic-statecraft-in-the-age-of

Year end musings from Texas: https://tnsr.org/2024/12/remembrance-of-things-past/