Wednesday, July 16, 2025

Helicopter season.

 

Another of those Scottish days. Bright and sunny in the morning, wet and windy in the afternoon. I bring out the cushions for the garden benches and then put them away again. Still no sign of the solitary buck but the young hare are thriving in the thickly packed wheat and barley fields. Day and night the farmers bird scarer continues to blast annoyingly away. The crows, who breakfast in their hundreds in the barley field, completely ignore it.


The Rosebay Willow Herb adds a touch of colour to the view of the castle ruins. From the cliff top it looks as if the Eider Ducks have gone. There were a thousand of them on the shore at this time last month but they and their chicks seem to have headed north. The rocks are now home to the acrobatic fulmars.


A young gull still in its juvenile plumage is drinking from a puddle that's been refreshed by the overnight rain. We have to detour round it. The gulls - no matter what their age -  are completely fearless. Tourists eating fish suppers on the beach will discover just how fearless they can be.


Into the new chocolate shop. The staff tell me it gets really busy with tourists. "After lunch we're jam packed " says the young woman who sells me a bar of 50% milk chocolate.

Heading back to the car a helicopter thuds away overhead. Twenty minutes earlier we'd seen it land at the 5 star hotel to pick up a group of golfers. We're getting to that time of year when the private jets start to be double parked at Edinburgh airport bringing 'C' suiters in to play golf. Get the jet stream right and a high flier can get on to the Old Course in about the same time as it takes to get from Teterboro to Van Nuys.  I'm guessing the guys in the chopper are heading back to their Gulfstream and will soon be on their way to New York. A few years ago Rudy Giuliani used to be a regular feature at the bar by the sand traps on the 16th . I wonder who we'll see around here when the American President comes to Scotland later this month ?


This mornings cheerful radio music :https://youtu.be/GXjw44wdcs0

What is old ? :https://www.skeptic.org.uk/2025/07/what-age-was-actually-considered-old-in-medieval-europe/

Noisy languages :https://www.zmescience.com/science/news-science/why-warmer-countries-have-louder-languages/

Next generation power is closer than you think :https://gizmodo.com/these-mini-nuclear-plants-fit-on-a-flatbed-and-thats-exactly-the-point-2000627089

Escaping the heat in Italy :https://www.veteramatera.com/


4 comments:

Yamini MacLean said...

Hari OM
Meanwhile, here in Edinburgh this morning, the rain is falling fast and furious. There's the promise of the sun chasing it before midday... is this a back and Forth thing...🙃 YAM xx

Lisa in France said...

Beautiful photos and interesting links this morning. That hotel in Italy is really stunning, and the article about age is one of those "I've always wondered about that" discussions. Noisy languages I wasn't too sure about, although I've always found there is a big difference between how the same language is spoken from north to south - the US, Japan, France, Germany are all places where the spoken language is more "lyrical" in the south. I assume this must also be true elsewhere, although I wonder about places where everywhere is north, like Scotland and Sweden.

Angus said...

I'm pretty sure Scots and Swedes would attest to the fact that there are huge differences - both linguistic and cultural - between their respective Norths and Souths.

Travel said...

Sorry about HeWhoShallNotBeNamed coming to visit, will be be approved for ETA - with his felony convictions?