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