The Met Office forecast says the run of perfect weather will soon come to an end. The farmers with their parched fields will be delighted but you've got to feel sorry for the youngsters who have exams this week. We pass two American girls with huge suitcases who are waiting on the pavement for a cab to take them down to the Edinburgh airport for the first flight to Heathrow. They'll be back in New York for dinner. The slow post-exam exodus is starting. Most of the youngsters , in readiness for a weekend of bacchanalian partying, will stay on and tell their parents they can't come home just yet.
Out here on the coast the weather is heavenly.
Amazingly for Scotland we're dressed lightly without jackets even though it's early and there's more than a hint of a breeze from the East.
Notices have gone up on the railings by the castle. The university authorities are displaying a bureaucratic kill joy spirit. We're left to wonder what environmental damage end of exam season 'duckings' on the beach can generate. 'Disciplinary action' although unspecified sounds very severe. I'll put money on the fact these notices are as adhered to every bit as much as the ones that say ' No sitting on the grass ".
Last night we discover in the country ,15 minutes drive away , one of those old fashioned village pubs. A small bar and a garden hidden behind a privet hedge.
Local oldies are enjoying early suppers under the umbrellas while fraught students do their best to enjoy an hour or twos break from revision. Swallows nesting in the kirk tower circle low overhead. Two passing youngsters stop for a chat. The girl pretty and erudite and friendly. She finished her final exams on Friday. Now she's free. He ,slightly embarrassed in that tousle haired English way, says he has his final paper on Thursday. They are amazed when they discover we were students here 50 years ago. 'What was it like then ?' asked in a tone of voice that suggests we worked by candle light, used quill pens and battled with scurvy. Their enthusiasm make us laugh. I stand by my view that the world will be better when the twenty year olds take over. Hemingways line on wisdom and age - " No that is a great fallacy : The wisdom of old men. They do not grow wise. They grow more careful " is absolutely true.
8 comments:
Hari OM
...I am wondering if that is actually two separate messages on the one sign as a result of fiscal restraint: Don't be getting wet... and Don't be picking at the rocks or throwing seaweed...
Aha, is that the Kinneuchar I spy? YAM xx
Thank you for the Chartroom confirmation. We'd spotted it on a previous visit and thought it looked promising.
On students of a previous era, this was my mother's teaching colleague at a rural primary school in Moray. Not quite quill pen, but definitely going back in time. https://www.abdn.ac.uk/stories/wartime-diaries/index.html?fbclid=IwY2xjawKXv0NleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHjJ7YQRyMP2LipSMjTe7FCWwHV4njH1wAxzANY8U8YEh6bquO9QhH7_qrYsM_aem_MnDiaDdJs-kz4FEUdGHTzA
I wonder whether your swallows are "vocal." The flock that roosts in our village center shriek as they swoop - my husband thought it was a car alarm at first. We had swallows in Japan, but neither of us remember them making any noise. In Japan, it is considered good luck if swallows make a nest at your home, but I have to wonder if the same would be true if they shrieked. Maybe different varieties.
We did finish University before computers, and mobile phones. Google keeps changing "ducking" to "ducklings", so much for the advantage of computers. The future belongs to those 20 year olds.
As for the article about boots in Texas, this explains why I refuse to enter Texas, ever. I was forced to drive through about an hour's worth once, but even as much as I want to travel to Dallas to experience the scene of the Kennedy assassination, Texas would need to change a lot before I would do so. At my age, little hope for that.
Nina
Ducking??
Great article, Linda
Swallows do make a twittering noise, but the shriek you hear is from swifts. They hold what are called "screaming parties". It's the wonderful sound of summer. Swallows have a long forked tail and a reddish patch on the throat. Swifts have a very long wingspan and are scimitar-shaped in flight.
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