The church mouse.

Three o'clock on Sunday afternoon and the governments new emergency alert system has a trial run. Although it had been well advertised the dystopic sound of the siren has both of us leaping to find our i-Phones. I'm left  wondering why the government has decided this is the time to trial its doomsday warning technology. Perhaps China senses its moment is close ?

The strawberry hut down the coast has now closed for the season. We pick up the last three punnets. The farmers two daughters are heading off on holiday before the new term at Oxford starts in mid-October. The eldest is off to Madagascar with her boyfriend. The youngest on a girls trip to Corfu. Both girls exude a bubbly eagerness to get on their respective ways. The farmer is not sure about his eldest daughters 'floppy haired ' boyfriend who shows an aversion to getting up at five to help him clean out the byres.

Peach and pistachio tarts on sale. These are made by a  French lady from Besancon who sets out a Gallic products stall on the market square once a month. 

A group of  village folk are tidying up the war graves in the churchyard. The first week of September marks the anniversary of the declaration of war in 1939 so there's more of the volunteers out than usual . The beds have been mulched and weeded and the edges of the grass trimmed into a straight line. The rose bushes are in bloom and they've decided to put off deadheading them for another four weeks. " They brighten up the place " says a cheerful man in an ill fitting Harris Tweed jacket and an unusual duck egg blue padded cap. A middle aged woman is picking up fallen branches and putting them in a wheelbarrow. She chats away to the 'boys' without a hint of embarrassment. Some of the 'boys' have been torpedoed, others sunk by mines, a few killed in crashes at the local Fleet Air Arm airfield. Most are were in their late teens although one is a much decorated 58 year old surgeon with the rank of colonel. He has the same sized tomb as all the others. 

As the group of gardeners move away for a restorative cup of tea in the nave an older woman kisses the tips of her index and middle fingers and then runs them lightly across the top edge of a stone belonging to a New Zealand lieutenant. He may be far from home but more than eighty years on the gratitude is still fresh and the gestures gentle. Another of those little things about life that are too unimportant for a diary but too important to go unrecognized.

We cut through the back door of the church and head out towards the street via the  porch. A local sheepdog and his master are busy reading the births, weddings and deaths notices. The sheepdog is fixated on a dark corner under a table which may, or may not, be home to a church mouse. 

Rural Scotland moves to a quiet and quite unfashionable tempo all of its own. The same cannot be said for town where the young folk are starting on freshers week. Sunday night has been, from the look of some of the teenagers we pass, a wild first exposure to student life.

They have cormorants in New Jersey. A follow on from yesterdays 'birders' link :https://eu.northjersey.com/picture-gallery/news/2021/04/24/hawthorne-photographer-holly-cowen-finds-perfect-niche-birds/7356122002/

Style in Savannah :https://thedouglas.com/

This guy always looks on the bright side of life :https://newsletter.humanprogress.org/p/half-baked-crisis-we-arent-going

Which country will have the most people ? :https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11113-025-09966-y

A very English YouTube channel of someone who stops at small churches to play  their organs :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FU2B4ebbp8Y&list=RDFU2B4ebbp8Y&start_radio=1

Picking up the pace.

Sunday morning. A gentleman on the radio compares the experience of driving a new car to 'the time the K just hit'. This is not a phrase either of us had ever heard before. It is also a phrase neither of us is ever likely to use.

The pace of life around here has kicked up a couple of notches. The pavements busy with youngsters who have arrived on the overnight sleeper train . They're being dropped off outside their dorms by station cabs and attempting to pull wheelie bags along uneven pavements. The influx that has been building over the last four or five days is moving to a new level. All the traits of the late teen are on display - some are mild mannered, others earnestly cheerful, a few self assured and all of them incurably naive in a ' What have I got myself into ?' way.

One of the lambs in the field by the shore has discovered that the grass on the other side of the fence is greener and juicier. It pulls its head back into safety as we pass. 

Fresh mushrooms in the farm shop.

The centre of the town , away from the dorms, quiet bar a few parents up and about and planning to head home in the car after they've said goodbye to their offspring. Windscreen washer levels are being checked. The parents should be in London in time for dinner if the traffic is good. Mothers are keen to linger. Fathers want to get the Edinburgh Crossing behind them.

Gold chocolate for sale in the delicatessen. Gold chocolate used to be a thing fifty years ago. Then it suddenly disappeared. White chocolate also went out of production around the same time although it's made something of a comeback . I buy a bar of Gold chocolate and will report on it later in the week. It used to be sold as Caramac in the Scotland of the early 60's. More recently you would occasionally see it in Fauchon in Paris.

Bikes outside the supermarket. I complain about the students kamikaze pedestrian skills but nothing is quite as terrifying as a student on a bike. They head determinedly in the wrong direction along the towns one way systems. All 18 year olds consider themselves immortal.

Back out in the quiet of the coast we can see the farmer loading up the last of the hay bales down by the heron pond. The farm is getting ship shape and squared away in time for  winter.  Plans are being laid for the village Harvest Festival. The young American and Canadian fathers are walking their youngsters down to the rocks. They caught a dozen mackerel yesterday and hope to do the same again today. I bet their wives didn't think they'd be gutting mackerel when they agreed to start a new life abroad.

This mornings car radio music :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-qheZD5VtE

There are 96 million birders in America if these numbers are to be believed. I've never seen a birder in the US :https://www.audubon.org/magazine/birding-booming-hobby-and-big-business

The true size of Africa :https://bigthink.com/strange-maps/africa-wants-a-new-map/

Sunday morning ponder :https://danieldrezner.substack.com/p/welcome-to-the-interregnum

Brave sheep

 

The letters page in the London Review of Books throws up this intriguing alarming letter.

The sheep in the field by the sea are getting braver with each passing day. The dog attack earlier in the year seems to have been forgotten. The lambs are now grazing right up to the fence and seem unaware of passers by.

We stop off for a coffee at the little cafe by the harbour. The owner is there and makes us bacon rolls. " Don't tell anyone but you've got extra bacon " she says in a tone of voice that indicates we've become regulars. To begin with we're the only customers but within five minutes three American couples accompanied by teenage children arrive. The little cafe seems to have moved from being undiscovered to being on a TikTok 'things to do when in St Andrews' list. One American family ask for double fried egg in their bacon rolls which occasions some surprise and a look not unlike this :https://x.com/dublinbypub/status/1963868680019730493

We pick up some tomatoes at the farm shop and some lemon sole at the fishmongers.

Back in the village a sun blest corner of a cottage garden reminds us of France.

It is time to adjust the 'in town' driving to style to accommodate kamikaze teens who stare at their phones and wander oblivious and uncomprehending into the path of oncoming traffic. Angus can once again mutter grumpily under his breath. There's nothing like a good ' what in heavens name do they think they're doing ?' grumble to get the day off on a good footing.

More revelers in the water and a choir rehearsal in chapel sure signs the holidays are over and things are about to kick off :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxcoFe3_rM4

More on coffee:https://www.the-scientist.com/how-does-caffeine-wake-people-up-73355

Yesterdays missing parrot link :https://birdhistory.substack.com/p/parrots-gone-wild

China and C-A-T-S :https://x.com/GlennLuk/status/1962258662744826274

Student housing :https://joshuatravisbrown.substack.com/p/behind-closed-doors-the-inequalities

Dearth

Should we turn the heating on or not ? This morning we decide we can do without it for a few more days . It's a close run thing. Tomorrow, the same question will be asked and the answer my well be different. As an interim solution the light weight duvet will be brought out of hibernation. In France this conversation would take place a whole month later.

The farmer informs us his wheat yields are down 7% from last years levels.  " It was the dearth of rain " that was the root of the problem. He rolls the 'r' in dearth so it sounds truly apocalyptic. We commiserate but leave him to sort out his expensive new potato harvester which has developed another 'teething' problem.

This is probably the best time of year to be in St Andrews. The town is filling up with first year students and their families. New faculty members can also be spotted. The men wear jackets with leather patches on the elbows and the women sensibly heeled shoes to cushion their feet from the cobble stones.  It's a time of new beginnings and bubbly enthusiasm. The real peak will be next weekend when the remaining 8,000 youngsters decant into town. In Starbucks we overhear two girls talking about their respective boyfriends. " I've told him repeatedly how the spin cycle works but he still hasn't done the laundry ."  GLWT!  Overhearing student conversations ensures a happy plus ca change start to the day.

Archie the arthritic labrador and his owner are down on the beach. He trots along behind while the younger dog races ahead chasing the curlews. We wave to them  across the sand.

Hints of autumn everywhere but a few bursts of summer colour in the hedgerows tells us not everyone got the message.

The hardware store now displaying a depleted range of summer products. Fish nets seem to have been a slow moving item this year.

Only one West Highland Terrier left. How long will it be before the box it comes in deteriorates in the winter weather ?

The Bulgarian strawberry lady says she expects to keep on harvesting the crop for another month.

Life here is following its reassuring old routines.

Parrots should be thanked for the establishment of the National Institute of Health :https://www.tpr.org/economy-and-labor/2024-12-02/texas-leads-the-country-in-net-migration?stream=top

Westerns :https://www.woman-of-letters.com/p/i-love-the-myth-of-the-good-man-with?hide_intro_popup=true

THE in place in Paris according to a villager who teaches in the French department:https://mokochaya.com/

French power :https://www.worksinprogress.news/p/liberte-egalite-radioactivite

On the news this morning :https://x.com/PeterTwinklage/status/1963621013226246306

Younger faces.

A frustrated whimpering from the garden gate indicates we have a visitor.

Puppy is all fired up and ready to get the day started. She accompanies us to the heron pond where she sees a rabbit. We last see her heading at speed in one direction while the rabbit heads, at speed, in another.

What, from a distance, looks like a gathering of hardy Baptists turns out to be a large group of students out paddle boarding. What better way to make new friends than braving the North Sea before breakfast ? Inhibitions soon disappear as the frigid water shocks the system. Even from a distance we can hear the sound of laughter. With each passing day the faces on the street get younger and younger. The towns age profile is rapidly heading towards a number somewhere in the low twenties. A few weeks ago it was a multiple of that. Some routines stand the test of time and running along this particular  beach is on every newbies bucket list :https://youtu.be/bgO0XA3LkYM?t=60

No one waiting to tee off on the Old Course this morning. This is most unusual. A good murder mystery could be written around the concept of the missing golfers and the empty fairway. Have they slept in ? Maybe they're coming by cab and are delayed ?

Burgers and a glass of Veuve Cliquot being advertised outside a bar. We initially think this is designed for students but few students would pay $40 for a burger or choose Champagne by name. We think the target audience is more likely to be fathers enjoying a few hours of peace and quiet while the rest of the family are doing 'essential' pre-semester shopping.

The houses on the cliff tops are passed on in families from generation to generation. The last time I saw one on the market was well over twenty years ago. The views onto the sea must be spectacular. This one has a Chinoiserie portico that we rather admire for is understated good taste.

Ocean plastics :https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1096625

Volcanoes and 'events' :https://www.zmescience.com/science/history-articles/volcano-eruptions-climate-revolutions/

Pyramid security :https://theconversation.com/curious-kids-in-ancient-egypt-did-pyramids-really-have-booby-traps-why-was-treasure-hidden-inside-262319

Before the universe existed there were .... :https://startswithabang.substack.com/p/new-theory-could-early-supermassive

Surprising ? :https://www.tpr.org/economy-and-labor/2024-12-02/texas-leads-the-country-in-net-migration?stream=top

Reintroduction to cycling.

Clouds to the north of us and clouds to the south but here it's bright and sunny.

Some very alien looking flowers coming into bloom in the long grass down by  the shore. Cabbage whites flit around enjoying the warmth of the new day. 

The starlings sitting happily on the telephone wires look like notes on a stave. All our local birds seem to have had a bumper year. After the ravages of avian flu this is strangely reassuring. We see the first of this years deer - a small wee thing barely visible between mother and father.

Some bright spark at the university has organized cycle tours of the town for parents of incoming undergraduates. We are confronted by a group of doughty Americans trying to master their balance while coordinating their steering. Pavements are their preferred habitat. Once underway nothing can  stop them. They are a cheerful but teetering bunch.  Perhaps they'll get more adept as the day goes on ? 20% of this years intake will be from the US which explains why the bike tours are almost always populated by Californian 50 somethings. A man in a check shirt informs us " I haven't been on a bike in thirty years ". 

Restaurants and bars are getting busy again.

" Look out! The slope is steep and the road is slippery." Perhaps not the most cheerful topic for the first chapel service of the new semester for the assembled freshers but certainly a suitably Presbyterian one.

A new French hotel. Why don't we build more hotels on top of offices ?  :https://www.maisonhelermetz.com/

Some thoughts on an early to bed lifestyle ....:https://www.derekthompson.org/p/a-secret-to-a-long-healthy-life-do

Progress :https://arctotherium.substack.com/p/progress-studies-and-feminization

Signs of returning life.

I had hoped the idea of heading to the far tip of Norway to see the Northern Lights might have been forgotten. If ever there's a time to flee the cold and go somewhere sunny like Florida then surely it's November ? Not a bit of it. Restaurant reservations have been made and a cabin booked on the boat. Cheerful Norwegian restaurant managers with annoyingly perfect English phone up to suggest that we dine early. " It will be very dark and very cold so you might want to think of eating at six rather than seven thirty ". The word 'very' seems to be a constant in these conversations. I'm guessing that above the arctic circle in winter dinner is a relaxed and lengthy affair. The wine lists promise to be somewhere between good and interesting although, as you might expect in such remote locations,  expensive.

I speak to an old friend who is a diplomat in New Delhi. He's just back from a hectic couple of days in Beijing where little of substance was agreed but the vibe was good. He is quietly 'surprised' that American alliances so carefully nurtured over decades can be discarded so quickly. 

Young folks continue to gently drift back into town. Between ten and five the coffee shops are getting busier with twenty year olds getting reacquainted after the long summer. On the radio a professor observes that Elon Musk is a polymath matched only in American history by Benjamin Franklin. " Of course they have different views of democracy " she adds perhaps a tad too quickly. https://collections.st-andrews.ac.uk/item/benjamin-franklin-on-st-andrews-links/1001370

The weather continues to be kind. It's even warm enough for visiting golfers to sit and breakfast in the sun. It's that time of the year when everyone can still enjoy the street cafes and pretend we live in France.

The pavement cafe by the Shawarma House is doing a brisk trade although the Scottish climate seems to have taken a toll on their umbrellas. They look very fin de saison.

The wild roses by the cathedral have now (largely ) stopped flowering and have moved onto the rose hip stage. There are a few bees about but not in the numbers that were here a month ago. Over the last few days there has been a sharp fall off in the daily influx of tourist buses from Edinburgh so the abbey precincts are oddly quiet. In fact we're the only souls around.

'The Font' heads off to meet the cleaners who are doing a deep sprucing up of the wee house in town before the new tenants arrive on Thursday. I'm dispatched to pick up some pillows from the bedding store which is open but there's no sign of  any staff. While I wait for someone to appear I examine the shelves. Stylishly minimalist Christmas tree lights and decorations are on sale. Only 15 shopping weeks to Christmas !

Tuesday morning jive. Rather alarmingly I can remember listening to this as a seven  year old :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3zJZ2d4cis

#10 was interesting :https://openthebooks.substack.com/p/bloated-opaque-and-undisciplined

Danish research :https://www.sciencealert.com/hidden-rhythms-between-your-stomach-and-brain-could-shape-your-mood

Random shopping. A bird bath with a camera :https://uk.birdfy.com/products/birdfy-bath-pro  and a  water bowl for dogs :https://elfinfountain.com/en-gb/products/elfin-fountain

Welcome to September.

Welcome to September. There's a wonderful sunrise but the air is decidedly nippy this morning. We discuss putting the heating on but decide to tough it out for another couple of weeks.

The owner of the little medieval house round the corner is an advocate for bees. Her garden has self seeded onto the pavement and she is determined to let it continue to spread unhindered. A hand written sign on an old slate roof tile makes it clear that weedkiller is not welcome here. One of the joys of college towns is that there are lots of people like this who make their views known. Council employees might view things differently.

The four ladies who work in the university administration office are back at work and have restarted their early morning dip routine. The sound of their laughter drifts up the cliff face towards us.

Foreign motor homes line the old abbey walls. Germans and Danes are in the majority today. Spanish and Italian registered vehicles are nowhere to be seen.

The sheep outside the farmhouse are enjoying some fresh cabbage leaves.

We are surprised to see a small army of detectorists beavering away in the field that runs up towards the farmers windmill. The archaeologists found a 10,000 year old village in a field further down the coast https://archaeology.org/news/2025/08/27/scottish-field-encapsulates-10000-years-of-local-history/ and they think another may have existed just inland from here. This would explain why we have an ancient burial site outside the courtyard. There must be the better part of a hundred enthusiastic folk with metal detectors scattered across the field .

Something very Irish and seasonal on the radio this morning :https://youtu.be/gKS7o7px9g4?list=RDgKS7o7px9g4&t=15

History and horses :https://www.zmescience.com/science/news-science/a-single-mutation-made-horses-rideable-and-changed-human-history/

Americas empire :https://www.maximum-progress.com/p/should-we-have-kept-the-american

Prediction markets. Only 53% ? :https://kalshi.com/markets/kxpresparty/party-winning-presidency

The first sightings.

The first and still rare sightings of parents bringing their teenagers up for freshers week. Large shiny SUV's that usually do the shopping run in affluent London suburbs dot the hotel car parks. Mothers and daughters can be seen shopping for bed linen and knickknacks in White and Co. Fathers express 'How much did you say ?' disbelief at the price of cotton sheets and wonder why the spare ones at home wouldn't have done. Potted plants - that will never be watered - are unloaded from the back of cars and carried into dorm rooms. The youngsters seem excited, the mothers worried and disbelieving that their 'angel' is leaving home. Fathers tend to wander in the direction of the golf course and the solace of the watering holes that can be found there. Tonight there will be 'farewell' dinners in the restaurants. More and more of these will occur over the coming week. Wiser souls know the best way to drop off a first year is to get it over and done with quickly. Others still have to learn that lesson.

Out here on the coast the rose bay willow herb is dying back but something prosaically exotic is flowering under the wild brambles.

The weather remains well behaved. Dry and sunny during the day but rainy enough at night to refresh the turf on the golf course. Barely six and the faithful are already queueing up for their tee of times. 

Much of the population of Iowa seems to be visiting today.

Strange times :https://minnalander.substack.com/p/should-finland-and-sweden-reunite

Nothing new under the sun. Devotees of Taylor Swift and medieval saints have much in common :https://www.mixedfeelings.earth/p/the-medieval-origins-of-fandom-fan-culture?hide_intro_popup=true

Good to see a pipe band from Zimbabwe at the piping championships :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Gyjd2ijmFo

C-A-T-S :https://elizabrooke.substack.com/p/a-few-good-cats

The garden centre e-mails.

How can it almost be the end of August ?  Spring and summer have gone by in a flash and autumn is knocking at the door. As if to drive the point home the first Halloween displays appear in the supermarket. Even worse the garden centre e-mails to ask if we want to order a Christmas tree. Through it all talk of tariffs seem to have been a constant presence. 

The Scottish weather in September is usually as good , if not much much better, than it is in July and August. This late burst of balminess is something to do with the interaction of wind and water currents in the North Atlantic. 

Our morning walk is disturbed by a large Chinook helicopter thundering overhead. We can hear it from miles away. Every bird on the shore takes to the air as soon as the sound waves arrive. After it's gone they settle down again. The King is in residence at Balmoral so perhaps the helicopter is something to do with him ? He has a busy month ahead with a state visit by the American president  in mid-September.

Younger sister has gone for a swim with the farmers wife. Elder sister shows up in the back garden for a morning Grissini. She has no intention of joining her sister in the North Sea.

A quick haircut. The barber and I have our usual language constrained  conversation. " What you want " he asks. ' A trim' I reply.  I could ask for anything but would get the one and only style they offer - a short back and sides. Angus is surprised to discover that in front of each chair a small television screen has recently been installed. This  plays ' Afro Hip-Hop' in a never ending loop. This is a cultural trope that I have, until now, been ignorant of. Kurdistan meets Africa meets Scotland and everyone is the better for it. 

'The Font' meets me for a coffee in the fancy hotel on the road home. It has had a make over. We spend a few minutes trying to count the number of styles the designer has strung together in the lobby. This is the Gothic meets China meets Milan meets nuclear bunker style that golfers all over the world seem to feel at home in. 'The Font' declares all the chairs to be insufferably uncomfortable.

So starts a quiet but sunny Saturday in a small town on Scotlands east coast.

Xylophones. I'm guessing the 'intern' is still choosing the breakfast music on the local radio station  :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8b2GKp70LzU&list=RD8b2GKp70LzU&start_radio=1

Underground Toronto :https://www.worksinprogress.news/p/torontos-underground-labyrinth

'Involution' - prose a bit of a heavy read but worthwhile :https://jasmi.news/p/china-2025?hide_intro_popup=true

Sadly, I'd have to agree with every word of this :https://danieldrezner.substack.com/p/with-allies-like-these-steve-witkoff

Think I know what they're getting at :https://news.artnet.com/art-world/marshmallow-horror-2509289