Changes in dining habits.

This mornings local news broadcast tells us that the American vice President will be spending his August summer holidays in the UK. He and his family will spend some time in a small typically English cottage in the Cotswolds before moving on to stay at a Trump golf course in Aberdeenshire. Angus is left wondering what counts as 'small and typically English '. Blenheim Palace ?

The English school holidays have started. This, combined with the influx of golfers on their way to the British Open , means that any chance of finding parking in town after ten in the morning is impossible. Add into the mix the teenagers at the summer schools and it can safely be said that St Andrews is bursting at the seams. Angus reaches peak grumpiness when he discovers that the local council, who operate in the belief that all tourism is good, have recently approved the expansion of two large trailer parks. This will mean that one in four of all the static caravans in Scotland will be located near the town. 1 in 4 seems strangely disproportionate for a small medieval town with a population of 15.000. The concept of over development  as opposed to NIMBYism has yet to be understood here.

Before the pandemic most folks ate in restaurants at seven or seven thirty but in the  post-Covid years five and six pm dining slots have become all the rage. One or two of the local high end eateries are starting to offer discounts to fill post eight o'clock tables. It seems that the amount spent on wine is lower when people eat early and wine is, of course, where the profit is made.

Out here on the coast the morning sky is clear to the East ...

... but after last nights heavy rain it's still cloudy to the North. The farmer is delighted with the weather. The rain has come at just the right time to swell his yields. He'll start harvesting the wheat this coming week. That is a rather sobering sign of how quickly the year is racing by.

The last of the poppies soldier on but the first wind will put an end to them.

Outside the potato barns the patch of waste ground where the tractors are parked is suddenly covered in blue flowers. I'm guessing it's last years flax that's been brought to life by the warm rain.

The first of this years local corn makes it into the farm shop. Corn in France was always large and suffused with sun. Here's it's an altogether more spindly affair.

Pop stars are getting older :https://www.cantgetmuchhigher.com/p/why-are-pop-stars-getting-older

This chart took me by surprise. Did only 5% of Americans have passports in the 1990's ? :https://x.com/Duderichy/status/1946099435701727707

Headaches:https://undark.org/2025/07/18/book-excerpt-headache/

This video was not as impressive as I'd thought :https://www.livescience.com/planet-earth/earthquakes/first-video-of-an-earthquake-fault-cracking-has-revealed-another-surprise