Thursday, July 10, 2025

House sales and grey flannels.

The cleaning ladies came out to the wee house on the coast yesterday afternoon for their weekly session of dusting and polishing. It was 24 degrees and they thought it unbearably hot. They left after an hour. The elder of the two tells me she was cleaning a house in town and found that the French tenants had put on the heating. " The towel rails were piping hot " she says with incredulity. 

Out here on the coast it's quiet. The farmer is about to start harvesting the potatoes and has the irrigation system on to enhance their weight maximize his yields. I say it's quiet but the bird scarer in the barley field continues to blast away day and night. We have become oblivious to the noise.

This year there have been three houses for sale in the village - an unheard of number. One has been bought by New Zealanders with three pre-teens and another by an English family.  The third house, by the mill race, has been sold to an American and his wife. He is, according to who you speak to - 1) a geneticist at the university 2) something to do with Disney  3) an AI expert or 4) a retired pilot. It is quite likely that he is none of these. Indeed there seems to be some uncertainty as to whether the new inhabitants have actually moved in or were briefly here to 'take measurements'. 


Angus is keen to get a sculpture for the garden. He rather likes this bronze one but doesn't like the price. It seems to have an extra '0' added onto what he thought it might cost.


The hotels full of people gentlemen golfers who wear blazers, check shirts, R&A ties and grey flannels. There is an air of the 1950's about them.  Faced with the extreme heat the golfers wives wear cotton dresses. 

How odd the university looks with no students sprawled on the grass.

I'm invited to a talk on geopolitics in the afternoon. Somehow I go to the wrong place and am asked to wait while someone comes to collect me. The waiting room looks comfortable but the large picture windows let in the sun and the temperature soon climbs. The lecture hall is even warmer. As soon as is politely acceptable I quietly slip out of the back door , head off to the car park and turn on the little BMW's aircon. 26 degrees forecast for today and 27 tomorrow.


Sentient mushrooms :https://www.sciencefocus.com/nature/fungi-could-be-conscious

Fashionable chimps:https://www.livescience.com/animals/land-mammals/chimps-develop-fashion-trend-by-shoving-grass-in-their-ears-and-in-their-butts

This is not an article male students would ever read :https://theconversation.com/how-often-should-you-really-be-washing-your-bedding-a-microbiologist-explains-256516

American history. The Newburgh Conspiracy :https://acoup.blog/2025/07/04/collections-the-american-civil-military-relationship/

Health care. Live in a big city :https://nebraskapublicmedia.org/en/news/news-articles/southwest-nebraska-hospital-announces-plans-to-close-blames-uncertainty-over-funding/

7 comments:

Yamini MacLean said...

Hari OM
The Fox And The Crow! That's one of a limited edition casting by Paul Smith (Whaley Bridge) and would easily be in five figures I think. Wayyyy too good for the garden. A conservatory though... YAM xx

Lisa in France said...

I agree the sculpture is beautiful. And what a collection of links today. The piece on the American military-civil relationship addresses the issue I am most worried about. Just now, we have a very young American soldier staying with us for a few days, a friend of my daughter's who is on leave from his post in Germany. If he were not so young, I would really like to ask him what he and his colleagues are thinking these days, although I am afraid I might not like the answer.

jabblog said...

'Grey flannels' - such old-fashioned garb.
The sculpture looks like a realisation of one of Axel Scheffler's drawings. Very desirable.

Travel said...

Stay cool, a couple of summers like this, and air conditioning will become fashionable.

rottrover said...

75 F with a sea breeze? Sounds like heaven to this LA reader! I LOVE the sculpture. To me it looks like two of the residents of my canyon - the coyote and the crow.

Anonymous said...

Please buy the sculpture and invite us to come and see it.

Signed, Paphos

William said...

The Newburgh Conspiracy was a very good read, as were comments, I can’t imagine Senator Tuberville, or representative Marge Green reading.