Do youngsters know what a stamp is ?

 

From the window of 'The Fonts' cabin we watch four deer wander slowly across the freshly planted field of grass. They're followed a few minutes later by three more and then, bringing up the rear, two absent minded youngsters .

The larks have arrived en masse. The courtyard full of their music. This above all else ( apart from the lengthening days ) is a sign that Spring is here. Optimism is once again in the air.

In the sky contrails of jet fighters. They seem to be practising dog fights. In an era of missiles this can hardly be the case. Their convoluted twists and turns keep us spell bound until they all , as one, dart off to the West.

In town it's clear that the undergraduates have gone. Parking is easy and restaurants have tables. The pavements are strangely empty. A few post grads can be found picking up their lattes from Starbucks. I'd reckon 90% of customers pre-order their coffee by app. It's only old timers who actually interact with the staff.

We think of sitting at a table outside but there's a decidedly chill wind coming from the South West. Winds from this direction are usually mild but this one isn't.

In the garage there's an old Turkey rug. It's followed us from the family house to Italy and France and now back here. I open it up on the lawn to let it get an airing.

The side that's not been faded by two centuries of light is much darker. Having downsized it's too large to fit easily into into the wee house. Perhaps we'll send it to auction in London . Downsizing seems to be an ever ending battle. I also come across 'The Fonts' fathers stamp collection. It is full of old Swedish stamps. There was a time when every little boy had a stamp album. I wonder if philately is still a thing ? Do youngsters even know what a stamp is ? Many years ago I had dinner with a senior Russian politician. He kept an envelope with a couple of dozen super-rare stamps in his safe. He'd bought these from a dealer in London.  If ever he had to leave the country 'suddenly or unexpectedly' he planned to pick up the envelope and head to the airport. The envelope could be easily hidden and the stamps could be sold for a huge sum to fund his life in exile. I'm not sure dissenting Russian politicians make it into 'exile'  these days. 

Millenials :https://www.sciencefocus.com/wellbeing/heres-which-generation-is-most-sensitive

Goodbye night sky :https://arstechnica.com/space/2025/03/how-low-can-you-go-firm-near-launch-of-atmosphere-skimming-satellite/

Impatience:https://theconversation.com/how-evolution-might-explain-impatience-249325

That speech on steroids. This I found to be interesting:https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2025/03/05/trump-speech-expectations-analysis-00212939

Canine Alcatraz.

 

No prizes for guessing who is at the front door at first light. The muddy paws tell me she's already been up and about for some time.

The farmers belief that he had turned his garden into an escape proof canine version of  Alcatraz has proven to be woefully optimistic ... and wrong.

The sun rising as we walk along the shore. 6,000 steps this morning. In winter the wind makes these walks hard going. On days like this it's a joy. It's now only six weeks before we head off on our cruise of Japan and Korea.  We decide that while onboard we shall pretend that we don't follow what's going on in Washington .'Far too complicated for simple country folk like us'.  Better to be considered stupid uninformed than have tense dinner conversations. It will be interesting to see how our 34 Palo Alto ship mates discuss domestic matters amongst themselves. Will they follow the same approach ? I'd have to admit this caused me to bite my lip this morning :https://www.bostonglobe.com/2025/02/27/nation/rising-border-tensions-threaten-library-straddling-vermont-quebec-line/

We stop off to pick up some Baklava from the Lebanese cafe by the Medieval History Department. It's supposed to be good but I wonder if it's anywhere near as good as the Baklava sold by the Algerian bakers in Toulouse. There again a few years ago who would have imagined that you could buy freshly baked Baklava anywhere in Scotland ? The cafe also serves Mahalabia which we're also told is worth trying. I shall report on the Baklava tomorrow.

We can get seats at the little cafe by the church and sit in the weak sunshine waiting for our coffees to arrive. The waitress tells us that this week is a mid-semester break for the students. Many of them have gone home or headed off to Europe on vacation which explains why town is so quiet. She also tells us that exams start in eight weeks and term finishes in ten. The year started quickly and seems to be picking up its pace.

This mornings car radio music :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9X52lmeBWvM

Fitness. Non-smokers are four times more likely to pass than smokers :https://thedebrief.org/the-science-of-becoming-an-elite-special-forces-solider-new-study-reveals-what-it-takes-to-make-the-cut/

Interesting but I'm glad someone else tried it :https://www.vox.com/even-better/401003/circadian-rhythm-sleep-light-lynne-peeples-inner-clock

I can now listen to people talk about Covid with a degree of detachment. This inteview is worth listening to. Eric Topol who works at the Salk Institute was a Godsend during those early days of 2020 :https://erictopol.substack.com/p/carl-zimmer-air-borne-and-the-big

The chubby Pomeranian

Yesterdays arrival of the large coach remains the topic of conversation for the local  dog walkers. The retired judge is surprised it managed to make the sharp right angled turn by the village notice board without getting stuck. 'He must have been an experienced driver' said in a knowledgeable tone of voice although the word lucky might just as easily apply. The lady with the well behaved labrador wonders if tour groups are set to become a regular feature of our Sunday mornings. We leave the two of them discussing this improbable scenario and continue into town. Daffodils now sprouting among the snowdrops along the woodland walk. 

By the harbour we pass the taciturn Chinese gentleman on our morning walk. He used to be seen with two dogs - a Puli and a Pomeranian that clearly likes its food. For the last few days he's only been accompanied by the chubby Pomeranian.

The usual cast of dog walkers on the beach. Town has two beaches. Each of them has its own cast of characters. There's an easterly wind that just slightly too strong to be comfortable so they're walking along briskly as are the posse of mutts that surround them.

At this time of the morning traffic is not a problem. In fact prior to eight in the morning there is no traffic. Between eight thirty and nine, when lectures start, the old town suddenly fills up. 

Work seems to have stopped on the three houses that the US hedge fund manager is planning to turn into a single family home. The postman tells us  plans have been submitted to dig down into the bedrock to create a basement swimming pool. Good luck with getting planning permission for that. In fact this will probably be the first ( and quite possibly only ) time anyone here has thought of excavating into the ground rock to install a basement pool. The neighbours have woken up to the fact the excavations are likely to be intrusive and have lodged a series of objections. Basement swimming pools are very London and decidedly un-St Andrean.

On our way back to the car we're met by the Chinese gentlemans Pomeranian walking slowly up the hill from the harbour. 

New Mexico:https://www.livescience.com/archaeology/20-000-year-old-evidence-of-ancient-vehicles-discovered-in-new-mexico

Good news:https://www.zmescience.com/science/news-science/reaching-net-zero-emissions-might-be-much-easier-and-cheaper-than-we-thought/

Poverty fell :https://justismills.substack.com/p/journal-club-how-poverty-fell

Not often you see both Canada and Sweden mentioned in the same piece :https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/canada's-expulsion-from-five-eyes-would-be-a-disaster?

Woolly Rhinos.

 

Sitting on the gate pier in the courtyard is a very handsome Yellowhammer. The first of the season. We stop and admire it. The farmers wife joins us as does the retired Professor of Physics. A gaggle of excited dogs run around our feet.  In a small Scottish village the comings and goings  of our regular visitors - not all of whom are human - is a shared interest.

This morning there's thick grey cloud and a biting northerly wind. Quite a change after the bright sunshine and almost warmth of the last week. Despite it being early on a Sunday there's a large coach parked down by the potato barns. A group of doughty - and sensibly dressed - retirees are congregating in front of it. The coach has come from East Kilbride which is a modern town on the other side of the country. It's a good hour and a half  drive away. What time must they have set off ? From their practical clothing I'd hazard a guess that they're going to take the path down to the shore and walk the old pilgrim route towards the cathedral. In the rear view mirror we catch a glimpse of 'Puppy' and her sister heading along the track at high speed to greet them. At the crossroads we pass three more villagers out walking their dogs. They've stopped to look at the coach. " Never seen such a large vehicle come through the village before " says the man with the Spaniel called Callum.

 A series of posters advertising upcoming talks in the windows of a house in town.

The choice of subjects of subjects on offer are all suitably esoteric.

The Woolly Rhino discoveries on the A14 sound like a must and well worth the £3 suggested donation to the Archaeology Society.

The village watchlist for March :https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/march-birds-of-the-month

Book or Kindle ? :https://psyche.co/ideas/what-does-switching-from-paper-to-screens-mean-for-how-we-read

Rhubarb season :https://agoodtable.substack.com/p/celebrating-rhubarb

I hope this can be accessed from behinds its paywall. It is very sensible ( and calming and written by a retired Professor at Kings London ) and is one of the half a dozen or so  substacks we subscribe to  :https://samf.substack.com/p/two-steps-backward

The King has been busy :https://x.com/BBCPaulAdams/status/1895914772803305927

Anonymous tirades.

Strange. The blog has gone for 15 years without the comment section being anything other than entirely civil. There's been a change. Over the last three weeks I'm having to go and delete the occasional violent tirade. These are always anonymous and heavy on 'Anglo-Saxon' vocabulary .The post about the 'Canada's not for sale' hats seems to have been particularly incendiary. To be called a 'Canada lover' is , I'm guessing from the rest of the ( now deleted ) comment, not a term of endearment. 

Life here on the North Sea falls into two distinct phases. The wind and rain battered hibernatory phase between late November and late February and the days of stunning sunrises and lingering sunsets that last for the rest of the year. We're now, thankfully, clawing our way back into this second phase . Last night we spend £6 to watch a showing of Six degrees of separation at the Film Society. 'The Font' enjoyed it although my abiding memory is that not all student lecture theatre seats are comfortable. I'd also forgotten that Will Smith was in it.

We stop off at the fishmongers for some lemon sole and some Monkfish . The new fish restaurant in town opens next weekend and their website notes that ' our fish is  delivered daily'. 

Crocuses starting to appear everywhere. The garden of the old house with the rather splendid door about to see a riot of them emerge under the trees in their front garden. 

St Andrews is a town of gates that lead to places the tourists rarely explore. The railings outside the chapel cast a gloriously geometric triangular shadow .

Ahead of the Oscars - what's hot and what's not :https://read.substack.com/p/best-picture-nominees-unstacked

The American Head of the International Relations Department is rather exercised this morning :https://phillipspobrien.substack.com/p/just-say-thank-you-and-shut-up

Junk food :https://www.zmescience.com/science/news-science/junk-food-brain-metabolism/

The Skylark returns.

A group of villagers down on the shore. They're up enjoying the sunrise. Earlier in the week the retired GP was walking her Sheltie  and spotted a Skylark. Other dog owners and the occasional 'twitcher' have heard the news and  come to see if they too can catch a glimpse of it. Give it a month and the fields around the last wee house before Denmark will be alive with this plain little birds lilting song. The seasons are suddenly moving on and Spring is in the air. February seems to have rushed by even more quickly than January. Is it an age thing when months go by  as quickly as weeks and weeks like days ?

The weather is beautiful so we head down to Edinburgh on the train to see the picture of the chaffinches that we are interested in buying.

In the National Gallery the Monarch of the Glen greets visitors. One of Scotlands most iconic pictures. The image is much used on kitsch shortbread tins but in real life it has a grandeur all of its own. The scarlet background is the perfect counterfoil.

What are the chances ? Nothing has sold in the exhibition with the exception of one painting. The very one we've come down on the train to see. It is very beautiful. I can understand why it's been snapped up. Serves us right for not coming down earlier.

There's another work by the same artist alongside but to our eyes it doesn't have the same aura of calm as the smaller one.

There's also a print of a C-A-T in front of Siena cathedral by Elizabeth Blackadder but it somehow doesn't meet the 'must have' criterion.

We stop off at the Gordon Ramsay restaurant with its good value £20 lunch before heading home on the train which, unusually, is running eleven minutes late. The driver comes through the carriages to apologize for the delayed departure. It seems there has been a 'fatality' on the track near the Forth Bridge.  ' It's been chaos all morning.  I'll try to catch up some time as we go. Let's hope they don't run a slow local in front of us ' he adds.

The observational humour of a London based professor. Wry, dry and understated ?  :https://x.com/samagreene/status/1894865515627061347

Things about super glue I didn't want to know :https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/a63904443/mucus-super-glue/

Deep Seek in perspective ( I'd have to admit it's so easy to use but I wouldn't download the app) :https://www.rand.org/pubs/commentary/2025/02/what-deepseek-means-for-ai-competition-the-beginning.html

Double digit celebration.

Another largely clear and cloudless night which was ideal for watching the planetary alignment. This morning it's decidedly nippy and there's a coating of thick frost on the car windscreen. The little BMW's battery can't cope with having the defrost mode turned on and responds by shutting everything down. Even the petrol engine - the safety net reason you buy a hybrid - refuses to kick into life. After painstakingly resetting the whole electrical system the cylinders fire up and we get under way after scraping the ice off the windows by hand. We like the size and handling of the little BMW. It is perfect for narrow Scottish parking spaces. We are less enamoured with the cheaply tacky hard plastics  in the interior ( how is it we'd not seen them when ordering it - they're shiny enough ?)  and an electrical system that seems to be clunky and dire an after thought. It is a mystery that Asian cars can cope with the cold and yet German ones can't. 25% tariffs are the least of their problems.

Down on the beach the weather is chilly but bright. Dogs, and their owners, are out in force.

The weather forecast promises highs of 10 degrees this weekend. Double digit temperatures are a cause for celebration.

In town a couple with an E-type Jaguar are enjoying the weak sunshine and have put the top down . They must be hardy souls ... or attention seeking. There again if you have an E-type convertible in Scotland you'd use every dry day to the max.

A detour for some goats cheese. Angus is surprised - as he is every time he goes shopping -  how expensive cheese has become.

Who'd have thought it ? : https://theconversation.com/alcohol-ingestion-by-animals-is-surprisingly-widespread-and-were-starting-to-understand-its-impact-246638

The radio has a segment on whether birds worry - ( they do ).This unusual but rather beautiful piece of music is played :https://youtu.be/ZSxxvjcDxAI

Baby boomers :https://ourworldindata.org/baby-boom-seven-charts

Puppy mountain :https://apnews.com/article/puppy-mountain-yangtze-river-china-photo-d5d59c2d787068c279cb99eff526827a?stream=top

Bikes.

We've now taken to watching an hours television before turning in for the night. Netflix has been our destination of choice for the last week. Robert de Niro in Zero Hour is brilliant although the plot is 'taxing'. We wonder where the collonaded final scene was filmed in Washington. 

The weather seems to have moved out of deep winter into something altogether more pleasant. Yesterday afternoon we consider, but reject, the idea of sitting outside for a coffee. This morning there's some cloud around but it's expected to clear up by mid-morning.

Guess who has escaped from her 'escape proof ' garden ? She follows us down to the shore before darting off in pursuit of a hare. Today we're fortunate to observe her escape technique. She positions herself on the farm lawn and then runs at high speed towards the stone wall . Five foot walls are no obstacle to this young lady. She vaults over them with ease. The farmer may need to rethink his 'containment' plans.

Next to the butcher a new shop has opened in town. 

The owner is a delightful young solicitor with a golf mad husband. This is , for them, the prefect lifestyle solution. He golfs, she runs what is primarily an e-business. 'The Font' considers a pair of Delft tulip towers but having downsized by 85% they are deemed too large and 'impractical ' for the wee house. 

The good weather is bringing out the students and their bikes. 19 year olds on bicycles are an ever present  hazard in a college town. They arrive speedily and silently from every point of the compass. Other road uers are ignored with Olympian disdain as are road markings. It took for ages to reverse out of our morning  parking spot. Every time I tried the wee cars radar system would detect a bike, slam on the brakes and emit a noise that was half klaxon half manic peel of bells. A demonic design feature but less demonic than the Volvos high pitched staccato warning chimes.

Dogs have always liked snacks :https://www.livescience.com/animals/dogs/dogs-may-have-domesticated-themselves-because-they-really-liked-snacks-model-suggests

3 types of curiosity. This is a very 'Berkeley' article  :https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/the_three_styles_of_curiosity

California's dolphin super-pod. What a sight ! :https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/rare-video-captures-super-pod-of-2000-dolphins-breaching-and-playing-off-california-coast/ar-AA1zMAAg

A rather damning view of the British :https://www.eurointelligence.com/column/can-the-uk-quit-the-us

The ice hockey team without ice.

 

Angus goes to the lawyers in Edinburgh who are holding a seminar on ' Preparing your finances for later life'. I'm greeted by a young partner who looks as if he's barely left school. Angus also thinks the same holds true for Policemen these days. The majority of the dozen attendees ( most of whom are in their sixties and don't consider themselves to be anywhere near 'later life' ) ) wear green tweed suits , have excessively 'rosy' cheeks and look as though they've come straight from a wind swept grouse moor. Some law firms are modern and 'buzzy'. This is neither.

Back in St Andrews Angus meets 'The Font' in the trendy cocktail bar facing the chapel. After an afternoon listening to tax matters Angus is in need of a drink ... or two.

We position ourselves in a window seat and watch the choir gather for evensong in the chapel. As it gets dark the stained glass windows glow from the light inside. What a simple pleasure.

We opt to go to Tailend and pick up a takeaway. When we get there it's already busy with chatty pre-meds and locals. While waiting outside I notice that there's a group of students busily getting the dinner table laid in a flat above. Do they notice the smell of fish ? The new environmentally friendly chip fryers must have made a world of difference ? Students of course are oblivious to things that would deter normal people older folk.

A bus arrives and drops off a group of  young men. The driver parks so that the bus  blocks the street and brings the flow of traffic to a complete halt. The driver is not a happy man. He opens the luggage bays and informs the young men ' It's no ma job to unload yur stuff '. 'Pal' is said in a tone of voice that hints at pent up passive aggression. He is less than polite to a lady in a white Polestar who asks how long he's going to be.

The bus  drives off leaving a large pile of bags and confused looking youngsters  by the side of the road. They seem to be an American ice hockey team. This is unusual because there's no ice hockey rink here and I'm not sure the university has an ice hockey team for them to play. The chaos hints at travel plans that have gone awry. One bright spark spots a bar and heads off towards it with his bags and sticks. Slowly, the others - heavily laden - follow.

To watch out for later this week :https://starwalk.space/en/news/what-is-planet-parade

Italian news :https://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/72503

Dreams :https://cosmosmagazine.com/health/body-and-mind/why-do-we-remember-dreams/

Escape.

It rained overnight but we wake to a beautiful morning. Down by the shore  the Cormorants are sunning themselves on the rocks and the local deer family are contentedly breakfasting on the new grass shoots. Puppy is keen to join us but is intercepted by the farmers wife. Her husband spent two hours on Sunday morning 'escape proofing' the garden and ensuring all the gaps in the fence were closed with chicken wire. I fear his handiwork may be put to the test .... soon. I'll also put money on the fact that it is impossible to stop a determined Jack Russell from escaping when bacon rolls with the golf course ground keepers are on offer.

This mornings car radio music is introduced as being from a 'different era'. It might as well be from a different universe :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_gzzCLSct4 I can vaguely remember it.

In town the house with the table covered in piles of exam papers has a jaunty jar of carnations in the window. St Andrews has more dogs that any town we've ever been in and more houses with flowers in windows. The student cafe a few doors down is already doing a roaring trade with youngsters en route to the library. They block the pavement and spill onto the road - which is what students do. To them it seems as if cars,  local residents and anyone over the age of 25 are either invisible or don't exist.

The bakers is once again laser focused on the student demographic.  Fudge donuts are firmly at the centre of the new weeks window display.

So starts a bright and sunny Monday morning in a small college town on the North Sea. 

Fog harvesting :https://www.frontiersin.org/news/2025/02/20/fog-harvesting-water-drinking-agriculture-worlds-driest-regions

Cults: https://www.historytoday.com/archive/head-head/how-have-cults-shaped-american-history

This seems illogical :https://www.semafor.com/article/02/20/2025/corporations-dig-deeper-using-bunkers-to-secure-data

Nail biting

Yesterday was the first time we've felt the warmth of the sun on our faces since November. Spring may not be here yet but it's on its way.  

'The Font' heard this at the music centre :https://youtu.be/Q_VvkOYJ0sE . It was beautifully played. 

The gentlemans outfitters is currently 'big' on tweed coats and those sorts of peaked caps that the local farmers wear. Angus notices a blue gilet that might be the right thing for our motor vessel cruise around Asia. 

The rugby crowd were out en masse in the afternoon and the Shawarma outlet did  a brisk trade in alcohol absorbing snacks. Scotland lost to our southern neighbour by a nail biting 16-15.

In a courtyard there's an old Holm Oak floodlit in green which seems to attract a large group of birds. As night falls these emit a wall of sound not dissimilar to hearing the parrots roosting in Delhi at sundown.

The pub is quieter after a hectic afternoon. By the time the concert is over the regulars are on their 3rd round of match replays on the bar television.

Wild dogs :https://theconversation.com/your-dog-may-be-wilder-than-you-think-according-to-canine-sleep-research-241981

No wonder the Vikings were bad tempered :https://www.popsci.com/science/viking-skull-ct-scans/

The views of an American professor here in St Andrews - he is not confident :https://substack.com/@phillipspobrien?