Sunday, May 11, 2025

Sand castles.

Another perfect morning. Some clouds over the hills to the north but apart from that the sky is clear. The church elder is doing a wee bit of weeding in his garden before heading off to open up for the Sunday morning service. On this windswept coast the church elders garden is a colourful wonder made possible by careful tending and judicious planting of wind breaks.  "Hope we get a good sermon today" he says by way of greeting. This is the sort of small talk you'd expect to find in a Jane Austen novel. He's wearing a beanie hat and his gardening clothes. These  give him a whimsical look not unlike one of  the flowerpot men. His jumper has a large hole on the left hand side which once you notice it is something you can't ignore. It seems to be held together by faith.  Four plump labradors head off with their owners along the track that runs to the heron pond. The labradors run with that well fed contentment peculiar to labradors. The Irish woman pauses to tell us that a television company is in town to record a series about building sand castles. This sounds improbably dull. We shall wander down there this afternoon to see what it's all about. 


Last year was a bad year for butterflies. The cold and damp of the summer storms made life difficult for them. This year they're thriving and loving life. The warm, calm weather has them out in droves. Down by the waters edge there's a fifty or sixty small pale blue ones the size of a 5p piece. They seem to love the bluebells.


Good weather means weddings. An American girl is marrying a Scottish boy and the car carrying bride and father has arrived too early. They do a detour round town. The back roof is down and the brides veil cascades out in the wind behind her. A group of tourists outside the Italian cafe cheer.


A chocolate shop is opening up in the premises where the discount pharmacy used to be. The town needed a proper chocolate shop. There used to be one on the other side of the road but the owners have converted the retail space into a mini cafe and the chocolate display has been downgraded.. 

Captured innocence. This is beautiful . The last line lingers :https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/812314-lies-i-ve-told-my-3-year-old-recently-trees-talk

Played on the car radio this morning. I've never understood the lyrics  :https://youtu.be/HnhrBGzcN3Q?t=70

And thank you to Fi in New Zealand for reminding us of this event 15 years ago. How can time have flown by so quickly ? : https://wilfanddigby.blogspot.com/2010/05/there-will-be-laughter-and-mischief-in.html



12 comments:

Travel said...

A beautiful morning for a wedding.

Yamini MacLean said...

Hari Om
This spell of fine weather is all rather dreamy, isn't it? Just right for sand arts... If you have not seen a sand sculpture, Angus, you might be surprised at how very not dull it is! Though , of course, the crew might just be after kids and buckets... YAM xx

Lisa in France said...

Dear Digby, it's lovely to see him again. While I discovered your Blog when you were still living in Italy and I was researching PON "bangs," I didn't start checking in on a daily basis until later, when Digby was already ill. I'm shocked to realize this means I've been checking in daily now for more than 15 years. I don't think there's anything else I've been reading steadily for 15 years except maybe the NYT. Your blog has brought me a lot of joy as well as, occasionally, sadness.

Ruth said...

I enjoyed that list but Raul has got it wrong as most of those things are true.
The evidence is here in your blog that we really are all held together by invisible threads.

Anonymous said...

I am much the same. I stumbled on Wilf and Digby looking for blogs about south west France and dogs and have read every post since.

I do not follow any other blogs

Camille said...

What a lovely thought - invisible threads. I shall carry that with me today. How could fifteen years fly by so fast? Digby and Wilf were handsome lads and not forgotten to this day.

Anonymous said...

Thank you for this lovely comment. For a moment I dreamt of a world where small bears live in drainpipes and fish are called Lorna and Jack.

Diaday said...

Life's tapestry brings us and holds us together in ways we don't even know about. As always, thank you for sharing your beautiful day.

Maudie said...

I enjoyed your trip to Japan but feel content that we are back home ;).

Stephanie said...

What a beautifully written opening paragraph, Angus though sand castles sound enticing to me. Every town should have a proper chocolate shop. Lucky you.

rottrover said...

Enjoy your wonderful Sunday. I hope that your internal clocks are re-calibrating.

The Life of Riley said...

My curiosity about sand castles at St Andrews found this link. I look forward to your observations over the next 10 days if you and the Font are at the beach before high tide. https://www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/news/5211124/race-against-the-tide-filming-west-sands-st-andrews/