The church elder is out early with his labrador. He stops to tell us that Corn Buntings are now almost extinct. This is why there's so much excitement about the small flock that is nesting down by the Heron Pond. He also tells us Eric Trump is in town. Or, to be more precise, he thinks Eric Trump is in town. This belief is based on a member of the congregation seeing a fleet of large black Chevy Suburbans draw up outside the Royal and Ancient clubhouse. Chevy Suburbans and large men in black suits with ear pieces are an unusual sight here. The man seen being escorted in looked like the Presidents son but it may, or may not, have been him. Anyway, why let details stand in the way of a good story? The great man himself comes to Scotland in June to open up a new golf course and lobby for the inclusion of his properties on the list of those that can host the British Open :https://www.trumpgolfscotland.com/hotel . He may discover that the sheer Presbyterian bloody mindedness of the local golf committee makes Putin and Xi look like pushovers. Somethings around here change in decades not months.
Sunrise. Our Saturday starts with a touch of excitement. The taciturn Chinese gentlemans Puli rushes across the beach towards us and emits a single solitary shriek. It then turns and heads back to the safety of its taciturn owner. It looks over its shoulder and glares as it goes. This behaviour reminds us of a dog we knew. The Puli is wearing a coat in Ukrainian colours and seems to have had the long fur over its rear haunches braided.
The trendy cafe that's popular with young lecturers has a menu that veers towards the challenging. We stick with our order of two Americanos.
Margarine v butter :https://www.drvinayprasad.com/p/is-seed-oil-better-than-butter-a
Pollution :https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/india-six-worlds-top-10-polluted-cities-report-shows-rcna195763
Has anyone tried this ? A trip all the way across Canada on a train would either be wonderful or a litany of uncomfortable beds, poor food and lost sleep :https://canadarail.ca/via-rail/the-canadian-train/
Birds :https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2025/03/state-americas-birds-population-declines-continue
15 comments:
When my uncle and his family emigrated to Canada in the mid 1960s they took the train from east coast to west, to their new home in BC, to show my cousins the extent of their new country. It was quite a popular thing to do then among newly arrived immigrants.
As a Scot I baulk at the idea of paying for a jar of stewed rhubarb.
I know people who have done the train trip and loved it
Hari OM
The pollution results are not entirely a surprise.
When one thinks of the 'canary in the mine' principal of staying alive, I can't help but think the human race just isn't proper attention to the "canaries" in wider nature.
Thirty+ years back, when studying nutrition, the risks to eye health in particular from margarines and processed seed oils was much discussed. I'm with the author of the linked article - particularly when EVOO is lumped in, when it is proven as a positive to overall health. Shame I could not read the entire piece... I won't be lured into signing up to Substack!
I had the experience of a full 24 hours (actually I think it may have been 26) on the overnighter from Montreal to Halifax. Was it worth the money for that experience? Hmmmm... Would I do it again? Nope. YAM xx
There’s a recent series of YouTube videos by vloggers Tyler and Todd who recently did the trans-Canada train trip. Other than the food, the trip, taken during winter, was a bad experience.
Thanks I'll chase up the link
I am glad I will be there before Trump insults all of the locals. Michael Downie has a video in the Canadian, https://youtu.be/6zFpUiaV_Aw?si=nP8SN9F9HLRMJYXL
I would love to do that train trip and have been resa=earching it. I would be careful, though, to avoid the deep winter as the route is very northerly!
Nina
The declining bird population in America is a very sad note. Among the birds we once often saw were western meadowlarks and barn swallows. They "went away" years ago.
Have friends who took that train trip. They loved it and loathed it in equal measure. As mentioned in another comment, there are a number of you tube videos to watch. I've always been tempted, but....
My cousin, who spend her working life restoring historical and cultural landmarks for Parks Canada, will be taking this trip a little later this year. I will keep you informed.
My brother and I took the train from Montreal to Vancouver and back to Toronto many years ago. My grandmother had left us a little money and we decided that was what we should do with it. We sat, and slept, in the cheap seats and dashed off the train in places like Medicine Hat to find food cheaper than what was sold on the train. As I recall, Ontario was beautiful with its lakes and forests and then we had about two days of wheat fields as we passed through Manitoba and Saskatchewan, before reaching the beautiful mountains of Alberta and BC. We stayed in a hostel out in the woods near Banff and, at the end we watched the Canadian International Air Show. It was a great adventure.
FYI, Americanos are now called Canadianos! 😉
Angus, a YouTuber couple, Kara and Nate, took the Via Rail tour and loved it. Here is the link to their video and review: youtube.com/watch?v=G9Xh95FO0i4
There have been several TV programmes devoted to this rail trip. It was interesting and the scenery beautiful, but I realise that it was heavily edited and the boring bits left out. Not sure I'd want to spend so long on a train, even with pretty scenery and stops along the way.
The menu at the fancy café seems somewhat pretentious!
I did Halifax to Montreal and then Montreal to
Calgary many years ago as a tightarse backpacker.
Not surprisingly I wouldn't pay for a berth and sat
up the whole way. Not surprisingly it was a pretty
miserable trip!
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