Changeable

Heavy rain is forecast but we wake to a largely cloudless sky. The six am radio leads with news that Elon Musk is leaving the government or at least his DOGE department and going back to his day job. There's also something about the courts rejecting President Trumps tariff plans but that's too much to digest this early in the day. As we head out for our morning walk the rising sun catches the poppies that have seeded by the courtyard gate. You can see where the term 'flaming red ' comes from. The garden at 'The last wee house before Denmark' is full of young sparrows. We reckon there must be something like forty of them. They're at that stage of life where they don't so much fly as flutter. The pigeons and the starlings seem to ignore them as do the rooks. Half a dozen youngsters are perched sunbathing on the lid of the wood shed as we pass.

Post grads - who are usually invisible - start to appear in the local cafes.  For them exam marking is done and teaching tutorials is something they won't need to think about for another four months. Post grads tend to dress for comfort rather than style.

Further down the coast  we stop to admire a new Porsche parked outside an old cottage. This is not the sort of car you often see in a small Scottish village. Perhaps it belongs to the people who will be moving into the rental house that's occupied by the young American couple and their family ? It must be a sign of age but both of us think the Porsche would be 'difficult' to get in and out of. 

Will the neighbours alliums withstand this afternoons rain and the changeable weather  ?

A Shaker exhibition in Germany :https://www.design-museum.de/en/exhibitions/detailpages/shaker.html

Beef and methane :https://sentientmedia.org/beef-industry-is-rewriting-climate-science-for-kids/

Dogs and babies :https://www.sciencealert.com/are-dogs-replacing-babies-in-countries-with-declining-birth-rates

An outside table  at this Paris restaurant would be heaven in high summer :https://parissecret.com/en/le-grand-cafe-paris-en/