Leonardo's lady and fashionable golfers.

It was almost 20 degrees in parts of England yesterday. For early March that's remarkable. Here it struggled to get into double digits but it was sunny and the skies were cloud free. The village gardeners were out in force to enjoy the sunshine as were the local bird watchers. We stood on the farm track and  marveled at the way the air pressure changed whenever flocks of honking swans flew low overhead. The rest of the week is now forecast to be colder and cloudier - much colder and cloudier.

The picture of the laughing girl with the camel has gone from the window of the fancy ladies outfitters. It's been replaced by a poster of Leonardos Lady with an Ermine - the Mona Lisa's 'sister'. In the late 1970's in Zakopane we met a waiter in our hotel who as a prisoner had worked in the Wawel in Krakow. He explained the meaning of the tattoo on his arm and told us the Nazi governor at the time had hung this picture above a radiator where he could see it from his desk. It is amazing miraculous it's survived. 

A 'Where it all began' jacket for ladies keen to impress on their friends that they've been to St Andrews. The ultimate in golf chic ?

The students are back. In cafes there are conversations about bargain Easy Jet air fares and adventures.  ' It was only forty quid each way to Malta ' and ' I didn't get a wink of sleep in four days' among the conversations overheard. Tans have been topped up.

We pop into chapel to listen to the organ scholar practising for a recital later this week. We now know the porter who greets us by name and leaves us to settle down in the corner by the radiator. A touch of  something both Eastery and Presbyterian  this morning :https://youtu.be/ynY7Y7_DeBs?t=185  The pew we're sitting on vibrates when  the organist (literally) pulls out all the stops.

There's an exhibition by Franki Raffles , a photographer , in the cloisters outside. Turns out she was a student here as the same time as us. What interesting, and unexpected, careers people  followed. Sadly, she died 30 years ago while  giving birth to twins. Her photos of women workers in Soviet Russia are powerful.

When we were staying in DC in September we bumped into Martin Sheen getting into a large Cadillac Escalade in the forecourt of The Jefferson. Only now have we discovered that he was on his way to the White House:https://youtu.be/kY-EbEVCPUw?t=30  When will such erudition again be heard in the Rose Garden ?

Understanding Poland :https://unchartedterritories.tomaspueyo.com/p/the-ghost-of-polands-past

Sex and brains :https://www.livescience.com/health/neuroscience/is-there-really-a-difference-between-male-and-female-brains-emerging-science-is-revealing-the-answer

Even your choice of lawyer has become political  :https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/the-situation--stand-with-perkins-coie!?

Bricks making a comeback :https://www.msn.com/en-us/arts/architecture/brick-is-back/ar-AA1Akhok