Grateful.

The weather has been well behaved. It rained again last night but it's dry by sunrise and the forecast is for a warm cloudless day. With the youngsters gone life slows down. The town , never really busy at the best of times, is border line comatose. A few hard partying stragglers can be seen wandering the streets after last nights farewell festivities but apart from that we have the place to ourselves. 

In the village the young American family are heading down the track to the beach. The children love the beach ( in that marveling way only four year olds can ) although the father seems less than enthusiastic at being up and about at six in the morning. With the end of the semester he's now finished at the university while she left her job teaching at the primary school on Friday.  In the afternoon there was an impromptu 'thank you' party organized by the teachers. All the parents without exception were there. The party was an old fashioned cake and bunting affair. The local farmers don't usually take time off at this busy time of year but she sorted out the schools IT system and for that alone they were grateful. There was a mini traffic jam when a line of a dozen or so large green tractors parked on the double yellow lines outside the school gates caused a traffic 'tail back'. She, really, really doesn't want to leave. They fly to Austin next week.

The local paper waxes lyrical about a restaurant in Dunfermline. There comes a point where enthusiasm and hyperbole become conflated.

A poster reminds us that in 5 weeks this years exam takers will return - or not.

One of last years glass fibre Scottie dogs seen hiding in a town garden.

The new trugs arrive.

This :https://apoemaday.tumblr.com/post/681712853114404864/storage

And as a counterpoint this :https://tovedanovich.substack.com/p/mary-oliver-has-a-store-now

Not to everyones taste :https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/history/unusual-diet-18th-century-geologist-william-buckland

Hebridean music heard on the car radio on Sunday morning. A reminder ( in case we needed one ) we live a long way south in Scotland :https://youtu.be/UVaOMGgVi6I

A very Danish menu :https://hotelnordlandet.com/en/