Sofas and birthday parties.

Only one topic of conversation on the radio this morning. The breakfast programme journalists can understand the control tower in Washington was short staffed but  find it embarrassingly difficult to fathom out what DEI has to do with it. The implicit assumption is that aircraft disasters are simply not the thing that politicians would ever be expected to comment on other than to unite the country around praying for the victims and their families. Judgements are what accident investigators are for. " Of course we've sadly not been blessed with politicians that are omniscient " says one pundit with the faintest undertone of what might, or might not be, comparative  irony.

Down to Edinburgh ... and back. The trains run on time. In fact the return journey sees us arriving three minutes early.  Parking at the station is 60p a day. Can't be many stations where 24 hours parking is less than £1.

It's sunny all the way which makes the small storm battered fishing villages look uncharacteristically inviting.

The up escalators at Waverley station aren't working. The up escalators at Waverly are never working. The down ones never have a problem. Go figure.

Angus goes off to see a sofa making man about a sofa. All he has to do is agree a price and a timetable for delivery.

What should have been a ten minute visit turns into an hours ordeal of trying out cushion fillings to judge their hardness. Whoever knew cushions came in so many varieties of firmness ? The workshop is tidy which may indicate the man works alone. He tells me he's been building sofas for 40 years and all - bar one lost in a house fire - are still doing what they were designed to do.

From the back of a cab on my way to join 'The Font' I see a cafe serving coffee, porridge and cake. Add on bacon rolls and you'd have the essence of Scotland.

Gordon Ramsays on St Andrews Square does a £20 two course lunch. Sea Bream with steamed vegetables  for 'The Font' and a steak and chips for me. There's Apple Crumble to follow. We're in and out in 45 minutes which means we can get the 1:30 train north. Six identikit Scottish ladies are at the next table. It's the eightieth birthday of one of them. Her name is Jessie and she's come in from Falkirk. All are wearing their party outfits.  A bottle of wine is ordered and then a second. By the time we're leaving a third is on its way amid expressions of ' I shouldn't but I will '. The six ladies were happy when they arrived and are well on course to be even happier when they leave. 

Recommended by a Professor at Columbia. Slightly out of tune but very French. The violins are great  :https://youtu.be/6Pa-M3qtquo

India through Indian eyes :https://siddhesh.substack.com/p/culture-shock-2

Is this unexpected ? :https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2418077122

The bizarre restaurant reviewer tries a Scottish chain with outlets in London, Tokyo and Bangkok. Who has ever heard of a Scottish restaurant chain ? Bars yes but restaurants ?  Irn Bru makes an appearance :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HkYnEykGloY

Chaos is fun.

 

Dog walkers, a few students and the 2nd XV rugby team out running on the beach this morning. It's the  varsity match in Edinburgh in six weeks and some post Hogmanay  fitness training is required. A number of dogs feel the need to chase the 2nd XV as they pound along the sand. Any pretense at order disappears as dogs and youngsters become intertwined. There is much laughter and tail wagging. Owners embarrassedly try to retrieve their dogs but this only acts as a signal for other dogs to join in the fun. The ensuing chaos makes us smile. 

By the wooden bridge that leads from the shore to the car park a mobile sauna has appeared.  It can hold eight and can be booked by the hour or the day. The beach warden thinks that it will be very popular with students who will use it for 'hanky panky'. When was the last time anyone used that term ? The beach warden then mysteriously adds " Oh, to be young again ". Mobile saunas are becoming a thing here. The next village along the coast has one and planning application has been submitted for another  to be installed by the harbour.

Down to the fish shop for some Lemon Sole and dressed crab. The shop is busy and there's a queue of half a dozen waiting outside the door. Who would have thought that Thursdays were busier than Fridays ?

The year racing along. The supermarket aisles now filling up with chocolate Easter Eggs and animals.

Ralph the Cavapoo and Dougal the Puppy look as if they'll be big sellers.

From the supermarket car park more contrails in the sky - a sign that the Russians are still out there beyond the horizon although there seem to be fewer fighter jets up this morning.

Played on the car radio this morning :https://youtu.be/VIASSQziiIw

Who remebers RCA ? :https://globalfinancialdata.com/rca-and-the-roaring-twenties

Indian EV's - they'd be ideal for London :https://www.dezeen.com/2025/01/28/hyundai-electric-e3w-rickshaw-concepts/

Spy ships and sheep.

The Air Force are up and about bright and early this morning. We're woken by jets flying low overhead. There must be a Russian convoy in the North Sea. Earlier in the week the Navy was keeping a watchful eye on a large spy ship that was loitering near the cross Channel power cables. From the level of military activity today I'd guess the ship has now made its way 400 miles North and is somewhere near the new windfarm offshore from us.

The sheep on the village green seem unbothered by the roar of afterburners. They munch contentedly on the grass by the burn. The farmer tells us that the Burns Night raffle raised £1650 for the village kitty. He is very happy with this. 

The pilots seem to be flying in circles. Lots of 'O' shaped contrails can be seen in the sky to the North and South. On their way to school the village children stop and stare skywards at this strange spectacle.

A new exhibition is being set up in the art gallery in town. A rather stylish lady is overseeing the hanging of pictures. Peering through the window it looks like the dog sculptures have gone.

Opposite the art gallery one of the medieval houses in town is being repainted. Lilac and puce make a rather low key combination. I'm sure it's historically correct although maybe just a wee bit drab ?

Another of those questions I'd never thought of asking :https://substack.com/home/post/p-155848665

AI writing our laws :https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2025/01/ai-will-write-complex-laws.html

This house is very Swedish  :https://rc.se/bostader/obj12549_2096885059/

Shoes in the trees.

I open the door to take out the rubbish and within a nano-second there's a visitor in the kitchen. From the state of the visitors paws and fur I can safely assume she's been down on the coast chasing the Shags.

We go to collect the sheets from the dry cleaners. The trees in the park by the football ground grab our attention.

They're covered in shoes. Does this have a meaning ? All the shoes are neatly tied onto branches. Some of them a good twenty feet above the ground. Getting them up there can have been no easy matter.

Fudge donuts once again on sale in the bakers. We're back in term time and student tastes are being catered for. The lad behind the counter tells me there's been a run on strawberry tarts this morning. There's only five left. " A girl came in and bought a dozen " he adds. I'm not sure how to respond to this so reply with what I hope is a surprised sounding ' Goodness me '. 

Why did I never formulate this question ? :https://www.sciencenorway.no/sleep/why-dont-we-fall-out-of-bed-while-we-sleep/2456764

A storm post mortem :https://theconversation.com/why-meteorologists-are-comparing-storm-eowyn-to-a-bomb-248203

Up and running.

 

The students are back, the weather is clear and after the storm the old town has been tidied up and is once again looking at its best. 

While 'The Font' goes to a concert in the music centre Angus ventures into a pub. He used to visit the same pub for breakfast every morning 50 years ago. In those student days he would start his day with a steak pie and a pint of IPA.  Half a century on and the thought of beer and a steak pie for breakfast is no longer enticing.....or wise. Two third year  students at the counter are lamenting the fact that they've chosen to major in a subject that has a nine am lecture on their very first day back.  " Nothing like being thrown in at the deep end " says one as he orders a second round. Their early starting professor is referred to as an 'ogre' which seems mild in comparison with some of the terms they could have called him.

On the wall of the pub there's a photograph of the local Home Guard on parade in 1940. The caption underneath makes it clear they'd had a reviving pint here before setting off.

This morning another northern sunrise. The colours are glorious but don't quite reach the  awesome level we saw in the skies before the storm.

Seville oranges make a seasonal appearnce in the farm shop. It's the annual Scottish marmalade making season.

Why we downsized to a smaller car. Owners of the Edinburgh airport multi-storey please take note :https://www.carscoops.com/2025/01/as-cars-get-bigger-and-wider-so-must-parking-lot-bays/

Sub-Saharan Africa :https://www.ggd.world/p/why-is-african-teen-fertility-so

Northern England :https://tomforth.co.uk/whynorthenglandispoor/

Quiet after the storm.

 

The village Burns Night was due to start at seven but  someone had forgotten to make sure that the kitchens gas cylinders were full. As a result dinner started  an hour and seventeen minutes late. While waiting Kenny, the gentleman deputed to give the toast to the Haggis, drowned his stage fright with a dram or two of whisky. His declamatory style , when unleashed, was memorable. The farmers youngest son and his teenage pals provided 'musical' accompaniment although this was not to everyones taste. Before the raffle this was sung - https://www.youtube.com/shorts/c8--TZDHTWA  . The retired gentleman who doubles up as the local taxi driver/odd job man left early. He tells me he's get three jobs collecting storm delayed students from Edinburgh airport and bringing them into town.

This morning the winds have fallen to 30 mph. That , in these parts in January, can be classed a calm day.

In the field that faces the courtyard the sun picks out what I take to be a circular patch of stones thrown up by the recent ploughing.

Closer inspection shows that the stones are moving ... and chirruping. It's an enormous Covey of quail. We've seen a dozen or so every morning for the last month as we set off in the car but we've never seen so many. There must be at least sixty of them.

Looking off at right angles we can see three deer. This is good news. We've not seen the deer in weeks and were worried that they might have been in a collision with one of the large trucks that speed along the road that runs inland .

Mother and youngster are oblivious to our presence and munch on the newly sprouting grass. Father has us clocked and monitors our progress carefully.

It's going to be a clear day with blue skies. It is however cold. Blown over rubbish bins are still being collected. Life after the gales has returned to its old routines. 

Singing to your cows. Possibly the most Highland thing I've ever seen :https://youtu.be/ilmhR_EgK8Y?t=648 

This may, possibly, only be of interest to Brits ( although the search for easy solutions is not confined to them alone )  :https://davidaaronovitch.substack.com/p/the-impossibility-of-axel-rudakubana

The visual thinker :https://thevisualthinker.substack.com/p/sketchpad-feeling-sadness-for-objects

A gratuitous piece of Scottishness :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZkvvICG4TE

Fast flights.

 

Some slates off and a few of the old Rowan trees by the doocot blown down but apart from that the storm did little damage in the village. Our power stayed on although this morning there's a million homes in the Central Belt without. The winds reached 114 mph in Ireland but the strongest gust recorded here was a more manageable 84 mph. The garden 'cabin' has been over engineered so that its enormous metal frame anchored deep in the ground took the gale in its stride. Thank heavens we took the architects advice and didn't go for a cheaper and less solid option. The radio this morning informs us that the jet stream was flowing at a speed of 260 mph and  pushed transatlantic flights along at near record rates. The British Airways flight from Las Vegas to Heathrow recorded an over the ground speed of 814 mph and arrived early. Today things are much calmer although another bout of wind is due tomorrow :https://www.ventusky.com/?p=53.4;4.5;5&l=temperature-2m  

The council workmen have been up early making sure the roads and pavements are  hazard free. There's been a wee bit of flooding by the cinema but that seems to have spurred the builders there into a paroxysm of weekend overtime. As we pass skips are being brought in and lengths of sodden carpet taken out. From the tiles on the ground outside we can assume that the gale has advanced the planned roof replacement by several months

The block of flats that is going up on the site of the old hotel seems to have withstood the strong gusts. From the way the hoardings are standing I'm assuming someone has already been to check up on the place to make sure it's safe and secure.

High sugar content snacks are on offer in the wee coffee shop that's opening up after the Christmas holidays.

An 80 year old experiment :https://www.sciencenorway.no/research-ethics/80-years-since-the-famous-experiment-the-starved-men-developed-symptoms-resembling-eating-disorders/2454570

Desalination:https://www.anthropocenemagazine.org/2025/01/researchers-have-overcome-the-achilles-heel-of-desalination/

Tree evolution:https://www.biographic.com/how-some-trees-evolved-to-birth-live-young/

We leave Glasgow. Storm Eowyn is on the way.

We were going to be away for two nights but the government texts us with a rare danger to life weather warning telling us to head home. Ireland is set for the worst winds in recorded history and we're forecast to have gusts north of 100 mph. We rush to catch a train back before the stations close. 

The kilt store near the hotel is shutting early. Schools are suspended and the shop staff are off to pick up their children.

We did manage to get to one of our favourite restaurants in Glasgow. Only two tables were taken. There had been a last minute tsunami of cancellations. I feel sorry for the staff. There are 24 of them working and only 4 diners. The food was wonderful and a careful reading of the wine list unearthed a reasonably priced Margaux.

City centre cafes and bars are getting ready for the gale. Tables are being stacked up and padlocked together  to stop them blowing away . How strange this usually busy place looks when deserted.

The bakery near the station has run out of Gooey Steak Pies but is ready to help travelers face whatever comes with Haggis Pasties.

Back at The last wee house before Denmark all our electrical devices are fully charged, candles have been brought up from the garage and a case of Pomerol has been stored in the breakfast room. Garden furniture has been pushed against walls. We shall now brave the heavy sleet and snow squalls and take a quick walk down to the heron pond. Then we'll get ready to batten down the hatches in readiness for the 'red' stage of the storm from 10:00 am onwards. The farmers wife tells us the bridges across the Tay to the north and across the Forth to the south have been closed due to the winds. We are cut off.  Ever practical, she is preparing a huge cauldron of Cock-a-leekie soup on the AGA as backup sustenance for the farm hands. ' It'll feed sixty' she says.

It goes without saying a storm will not make a dent in the students Burns Night preparations or their enjoyment of it :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPMYNk_wy5U   A few, lucky and unsuspecting, American tourists film the pipe band and are delighted to discover they've landed in Brigadoon.

The sound of geese

We always stay in One Devonshire Gardens in Glasgow but this time we're trying a new hotel. Having made ( and paid for )  the booking they've now started bombarding us with overly familiar e-mails along the lines of ' We so look forward to welcoming you both to our spectacular and lovely hotel. Feel free to let us know what we can do to make your stay here truly remarkable. We have options to make every occasion special '. It then offers a variety of expensive add-ons ranging from flowers, through chocolates and champagne, to what is described as a spectacular candle it dinner for two in a roof top pod overlooking the Clyde. Check-in we are told has been 'improved' so that personal interaction is optional. Instead we will be sent a text with the code for a locked cabinet that contains our key. The early vibe suggests this will be a one off 'experience'.

Before heading off to the station we have a leisurely walk on the beach. Wave after wave of geese pass by overhead. There must be five thousand of them heading noisily due south. We saw, and heard, the same thing yesterday. The dog owners pause and look up at this unfolding drama. The dogs are too interested in playing ball to notice.

The expected influx of golfing fathers now visible around the towns three streets. Today there's a dozen or so folks standing outside the pavillion waiting to tee off. Large Mercedes are lined up outside the club house.

The Christmas Shop is open early. Why it's open in January, or indeed any day before October, is a mystery. Can people really impulse shop for tree ornaments at this time of the year ? Do they do 90% of their sales in November or are sales spread evenly across the year ?

In the coffee shop by the fountain a young father is finishing off his Americano. As he leaves he nods towards the small sleeping figure in the push chair and silently mouths the single word " teething ".

Nothing to whinge about this morning when it comes to the security barriers around the ditch that's been dug for the restaurants new power line. The barriers have  been well weighted down ahead of tomorrows expected gale. The latest warning indicates that we'll see 100 mph gusts.

One of the souvenir shops has a sub genre of hear no evil, speak no evil animals. This morning they're joined in the window by knights in armour.

Roll your own.

We're surprised to find Puppy sitting, almost hidden, in the long grass at the side of the track. She's up early looking for excitement. The farmers two other Jack Russells are not morning girls and remain asleep in front of the warm AGA. 

This morning Puppy accompanies us down to the coast and then, finding we're biscuit free, she heads off across the 5 star hotels golf course to the greenkeepers hut for breakfast. The farmers wife has thought of buying one of those electronic collars to keep tabs on her but thinks the £20 monthly 'tracking' charge is exorbitant.

From down here on the shore the old town can be seen. Sometimes, if the time and the conditions are right, the medieval towers glow golden in the sunrise. This is a sight that hasn't changed much in seven hundred years although in those days the cathedrals tall spire would still have been standing.

In the other direction the cormorants are soaking up the rays on their rock out at sea. We count 27 cormorants this morning which, we think, is a record.

In town a solitary gentleman is sitting outside Costa Coffee wearing a bobble hat and a scarf to keep out the cold. He has a tobacco pouch and is carefully rolling himself a breakfast cigarette. This weekend the winds are forecast to get up to 80 mph which will make cigarette rolling difficult if not impossible.

Town is filling up again with students although parking remains easy which suggests the faculty and admin staff are still away. I speak to the Manhattanites who would usually be on their way to the annual Davos conference but have this year opted to stay closer to home. " It's all going on here " says one - succinctly.

German cuisine in Shanghai:https://www.smartshanghai.com/articles/dining/the-story-of-100-year-old-cafe-restaurant-deda

A ghost island :https://www.sciencealert.com/ghost-island-emerges-from-ocean-and-its-about-to-vanish-again

Booster shots. Another argument :https://undark.org/2025/01/20/the-real-benefits-of-annual-covid-19-booster-shots/

America strikes it lucky.....again:https://www.livescience.com/planet-earth/energy/giant-reserves-of-gold-hydrogen-may-be-lurking-beneath-at-least-30-us-states-1st-of-its-kind-map-reveals