The first sightings.

The first and still rare sightings of parents bringing their teenagers up for freshers week. Large shiny SUV's that usually do the shopping run in affluent London suburbs dot the hotel car parks. Mothers and daughters can be seen shopping for bed linen and knickknacks in White and Co. Fathers express 'How much did you say ?' disbelief at the price of cotton sheets and wonder why the spare ones at home wouldn't have done. Potted plants - that will never be watered - are unloaded from the back of cars and carried into dorm rooms. The youngsters seem excited, the mothers worried and disbelieving that their 'angel' is leaving home. Fathers tend to wander in the direction of the golf course and the solace of the watering holes that can be found there. Tonight there will be 'farewell' dinners in the restaurants. More and more of these will occur over the coming week. Wiser souls know the best way to drop off a first year is to get it over and done with quickly. Others still have to learn that lesson.

Out here on the coast the rose bay willow herb is dying back but something prosaically exotic is flowering under the wild brambles.

The weather remains well behaved. Dry and sunny during the day but rainy enough at night to refresh the turf on the golf course. Barely six and the faithful are already queueing up for their tee of times. 

Much of the population of Iowa seems to be visiting today.

Strange times :https://minnalander.substack.com/p/should-finland-and-sweden-reunite

Nothing new under the sun. Devotees of Taylor Swift and medieval saints have much in common :https://www.mixedfeelings.earth/p/the-medieval-origins-of-fandom-fan-culture?hide_intro_popup=true

Good to see a pipe band from Zimbabwe at the piping championships :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Gyjd2ijmFo

C-A-T-S :https://elizabrooke.substack.com/p/a-few-good-cats

The garden centre e-mails.

How can it almost be the end of August ?  Spring and summer have gone by in a flash and autumn is knocking at the door. As if to drive the point home the first Halloween displays appear in the supermarket. Even worse the garden centre e-mails to ask if we want to order a Christmas tree. Through it all talk of tariffs seem to have been a constant presence. 

The Scottish weather in September is usually as good , if not much much better, than it is in July and August. This late burst of balminess is something to do with the interaction of wind and water currents in the North Atlantic. 

Our morning walk is disturbed by a large Chinook helicopter thundering overhead. We can hear it from miles away. Every bird on the shore takes to the air as soon as the sound waves arrive. After it's gone they settle down again. The King is in residence at Balmoral so perhaps the helicopter is something to do with him ? He has a busy month ahead with a state visit by the American president  in mid-September.

Younger sister has gone for a swim with the farmers wife. Elder sister shows up in the back garden for a morning Grissini. She has no intention of joining her sister in the North Sea.

A quick haircut. The barber and I have our usual language constrained  conversation. " What you want " he asks. ' A trim' I reply.  I could ask for anything but would get the one and only style they offer - a short back and sides. Angus is surprised to discover that in front of each chair a small television screen has recently been installed. This  plays ' Afro Hip-Hop' in a never ending loop. This is a cultural trope that I have, until now, been ignorant of. Kurdistan meets Africa meets Scotland and everyone is the better for it. 

'The Font' meets me for a coffee in the fancy hotel on the road home. It has had a make over. We spend a few minutes trying to count the number of styles the designer has strung together in the lobby. This is the Gothic meets China meets Milan meets nuclear bunker style that golfers all over the world seem to feel at home in. 'The Font' declares all the chairs to be insufferably uncomfortable.

So starts a quiet but sunny Saturday in a small town on Scotlands east coast.

Xylophones. I'm guessing the 'intern' is still choosing the breakfast music on the local radio station  :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8b2GKp70LzU&list=RD8b2GKp70LzU&start_radio=1

Underground Toronto :https://www.worksinprogress.news/p/torontos-underground-labyrinth

'Involution' - prose a bit of a heavy read but worthwhile :https://jasmi.news/p/china-2025?hide_intro_popup=true

Sadly, I'd have to agree with every word of this :https://danieldrezner.substack.com/p/with-allies-like-these-steve-witkoff

Think I know what they're getting at :https://news.artnet.com/art-world/marshmallow-horror-2509289

Look and smile

The name Travis Kelce suddenly being bandied about on the radio and television . It would seem that we are among a disinterested few who have never heard of him. Presidents Xi and Putin are set to meet with Prime Minister Modi. Guess that's a trilateral summit but not the one people had been hoping for. 

The news this morning also informs us that Sebastien Lecornu is set to be the next French Prime Minister. The news reader suggests that France faces a 'turbulent' two weeks ahead. You can be sure passions in the small French village where we used to live are running high. The phrase ' Bloquons tout ' pretty much sums up the mindset of our former neighbours.

In Edinburgh a sand sculpture of two dogs is a brilliant way for a Syrian gentleman to earn a little money. Does he bring the sand to work with him ? Does he sweep it up from the pavement at night ? The two dogs are cleverly crafted. Every so often he sprays them with water to stop the sand from cracking.  I've never seen sand sculptures in the middle of a town before. The psychology is interesting. People who would ordinarily rush past look at the dogs and smile and chat.

Into the tailors to pick up some shirts.

The shop has been busy with visitors popping in during the festival in order to stock up on the 'British' look. Even retired employees have been asked if they'd like to come back to work for the month of August. Tartan trews are completely sold out - the Hunting Stewarts were the first to go. Now the Festivals finished the customers have gone and the staff are exhausted. In fact everyone in Edinburgh looks exhausted.

The framer thinks keeping it simple is the best way to go. I agree. The whole process of choosing and paying the deposit takes five minutes. The pictures will be ready in three weeks.

On the way up the hill towards the station there's an exhibition of photos. The sheep are particularly Scottish. My favourite is the happy looking ewe on the second row, in the middle :https://www.instagram.com/markbowmanphotography/

The trains run on time so I'm back at home by a little after noon . The trip into Edinburgh and back has taken just a little over four hours door to door. Outside the house we're greeted by a wonderful double rainbow. It lasts all of two minutes and is gone. 

Almost all the bales in the neighbouring fields have been collected and stored. A start has been made on the potato harvest but the machine that digs up the tubers  has joined the combine harvester in proving to be 'temperamental'. The farmer and half a dozen farm hands are standing round it looking glum. They're waiting for a part from the dealership in Cupar. The farmer, it has to be said, looks glummer than he did when we left.

Last night we watch Thursday Murder Club on Netflix. One of those peculiarly English crime dramas where some comedically doughty pensioners solve a gory case that the Police can't. A pugilistic Pierce Brosnan was outshone by the rest of the cast . An entertaining 2 hours that scores 6/10 or maybe 7/10 if you want to be charitable. It has a more coherent plot line than most in this genre and will be a huge success.

This is apparently a thing :https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/renaissance-fair-origins-elizabethan-theater

Two fun places for a snack in Edinburgh :https://www.one-20.co.uk/food-menus/  and https://www.facebook.com/people/The-Artisan-Pasta-Maker/100064583896630/

A glorious sunrise

A super quick and content free blog post this morning. Angus is off to Edinburgh on an early train. It is a classic red sky in the morning day.

I'm taking down two water colours to be framed by a man who does work for the National Gallery. The possibility of drizzle makes me wrap the paintings carefully in a double layer of grey plastic garbage bags. It ain't a stylish solution but it will suffice. I'll also take a rain coat as insurance against Edinburghs temperamental climate for me. You can be sure the very second I step out of the station it will pour.

Yesterday, the farmer was out moving the bales of straw from the wet and windy fields in front of the house into the warmth of the cow barn. He now only has the bales out by the heron pond to deal with. The new combine harvester has been playing up again. One of the farm hands has misjudged its width and driven it into a field wall. The stone field wall suffered as did the combines drive shaft. It decided to stop at the side of the potato field where it remains expensively stranded. The farmer is not exuding an aura of joy and happiness this morning. We pass him with a brief wave of recognition.

Angus has picked up an 'intellectual biography' from the bookstore to read on the train. An intellectual biography sounds very pretentious but it's the sort of reading  that comes into its own on the hours train journey south through the fields of Fife. I had never heard of Walter Lippmann so until I've  started on it there's really nothing more to say.

A surprise in this mornings inbox. We must tick all the boxes on some bizarre tourism  algorithm :https://www.margaritavilleresorts.com/margaritaville-island-hotel-pigeon-forge

There have always been immigrants :https://www.sciencealert.com/skeletons-reveal-an-unexpected-lineage-buried-in-medieval-england

Did cows haul the stones ? Makes a lot of sense :https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/a-neolithic-cows-tooth-helps-point-to-the-mysterious-origins-of-stonehenges-iconic-stones-180987222/

Sending things to the US  :https://gopostal.substack.com/p/the-great-postal-boycott-must-end

Don't bark.

The bramble picking couple from Dorking who parked their motorhome by the potato barns have finally moved on. We don't usually snack as we walk but the brambles are temptingly ripe and sweet . Try one and you want to have another. There is something very Edwardian about grazing on brambles as you walk. In its simplicity it's an out of time pleasure.

This being Scotland the weather is temperamental. Sunny one minute wet the next. The farmer is going to try to get the bales moved into the dry of the cow barn this afternoon or tomorrow morning. His new combine harvester is having transmission issues and he's fallen behind schedule. " Bloody things only six weeks old " he says grumpily. We move along. Out at sea a huge cruise liner is navigating its way slowly between the shore and the windfarm. It's close enough for us to make out that it's the Nieuw Statendam which according to Google has left Rotterdam with 2692 passengers onboard and is bound for Lerwick. Life on board must be very relaxed if a detour to a windfarm is the days main excitement.

Two small poppies have somehow managed to seed themselves way down by the heron pond. They provide an out of season splash of colour and have emerged after all the others have died back. Have they chanced upon their own micro-climate ?  I shall quiz the man who works at the Botanic Gardens when I next see him.

 

The reed buntings are in their element. There must be forty of them pecking away at the thistle heads as we stroll along the dunes.

Down by the harbour the last of the European campers and their motor homes line the old abbey walls. Dog walkers, mindful of the early hour,  urge their companions not to bark.

Another dog sculpture in the fancy art gallery. It has a whimsical air to it.

Life in this small university town is ambling towards the start of the new semester. The tenants in the old wee house in town are due to arrive on September 4th. The builders finish ( we hope ) on the 3rd. This timetable is perhaps just a wee bit too close for comfort. 

How do they do this ? :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKDnmWSjVjA

Dogs:https://www.usnews.com/insurance/pet-insurance/most-popular-dog-breeds-study

Cats :https://www.popsci.com/science/why-cats-hate-water/

Fake honey :https://observer.co.uk/news/national/article/the-scandal-of-fake-foreign-honey

Seen from space.

It's rained overnight. This bout of  wet weather is welcome. The year has been abnormally dry and the water levels in the reservoirs and rivers have fallen to their lowest levels since 1960. A hosepipe ban has been put in place along the eastern coast from Edinburgh to Aberdeen. This doesn't bother the farmer who is busy giving the potato fields a good pre-harvest dousing. 

The lambs in their enclosure down by the shore are growing by the day. After the incident with the aggressive dog the flock seem to have settled in well and have come to terms with passers by.

From a distance we see a senior academic disappearing into his office with a Pret a Manger sandwich and a cup of coffee. Teaching may not start for another three weeks but the administration is busy dealing with all those unremarkable last minute things that keep the place running smoothly.

Three gentlemen from Little Rock are sitting on the steps of the Royal and Ancient. The three of them sway gently from side to side as if prompted by some music only they can hear.   The gentlemen in the middle announces to anyone willing to listen " I has died and gone to heaven ". I'm guessing they're among the lucky 50,000 who will play the sacred turf this year. The three of them are a picture of pure contentment.

Menus are being redesigned for a younger audience. The cafe by the Jehovahs Witnesses  Hall has changed hands and in now offering chicken burgers. It also offers Hard Shakes. Out of these offerings Angus would opt for a Hell's Bells Caramel. The others could only appeal to a teenage palette.

At the big hotel an excited group are set to head off for the golf course at Crail.  Some of the ladies are kitted out so that they can be seen from space. One lady wants to know where she can get a glass of wine and is horrified to discover alcohol can't be served in Scotland before 10 am. We put her 'thirstiness' down to jet lag.

A visitor to Ghana :https://benyeoh.substack.com/p/i-meet-a-coffin-maker-ghana

Sea serpents :https://www.historytoday.com/archive/history-matters/when-summer-meant-sea-serpents

History repeats itself : https://www.coolidgereview.com/articles/theodore-roosevelt-trump-precursor

Handing out pizza :https://www.themarshallproject.org/2025/08/23/washington-trump-ice-police-fbi

The early bird gets the best parking spaces.

We leave the courtyard and head off on our pre-breakfast walk along the track that leads to the shore. There we are met by elder sister who is returning from a swim. There is no sign of 'Puppy'. Elder sister greets us and then, discovering we're biscuit free, heads off up the hill. 

There's a bank of clouds off to the north but here it's bright and sunny. We meet a lecturer in the modern languages school walking her Dalmatian. She tells us that the average first year student learning Arabic arrives with a vocabulary of around 3,000 words. The average native speaker knows at least 20,000. Her job, in a students four years here, is to narrow that gap.

A couple have parked their motor home by the potato barns. They're out picking brambles which they pop into a Tupperware dish.  The womans right hand is dyed deep scarlet with the bramble juice. " We're from Dorking " they say by way of introduction or possibly to absolve themselves from the responsibility of unsanctioned bramble picking. Perhaps they think we're going to tell them the brambles belong to us ? We wish them a good morning and hurry along.

From the top of  the raised beach we can see stream after stream of gannets flying south in search of food. 

As we reach the shore we startle a cormorant. It takes off with an irritated flapping of its wings.It flies two hundred yards down the coast and settles on a rock where it turns its back on us and sunbathes.

In town groups of workmen are already hard at work. Two of them are sealing windows on a house in the little street by the cathedral. Seems the new tenants are expected at lunchtime and the landlord is getting 'excited'. The joiners have parked their little van on a double yellow line and are betting that no one will be up and about at this time of day. The early bird gets the best parking spaces. The builders and painters sprucing up the wee house in town worked until eight ( again ) last night but this morning there's no sign of them. They hope to be finished tomorrow.

This week is a quiet joy before the youngsters start to pour flood back. The arrival of 10,000 late teens in a town with a population of 15,000 can't be missed.

This old hotel reopens and ( thank heavens ) they've redone the coffee shop :https://www.waldorfastorianewyork.com/

Old life :https://scitechdaily.com/545-million-year-old-footprints-rewrite-the-origin-story-of-complex-life/

Dishwasher people :https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2025/04/how-to-load-dishwasher/682425/?lctg=6050e2b7f98ec7553cab3a85

Shipping to the US has got a whole lot harder :https://x.com/NBCNewYork/status/1959379398290760065

Oddest story of the month ?:https://www.odditycentral.com/news/pet-yeast-craze-getting-traction-in-china.html

Lots of work to be done

The cooler weather brings out the bats. The garden alive with dozens of them as the sunsets. We open a bottle of Pommard and watch them from the kitchen window as they do improbable right angled turns over the lawn. We've always thought the strange noises that sometimes emanate from the loft are caused by nesting sparrows but we may have to revisit that assumption. Further out there's a large flock of geese resting among the hay bales on the ridge above the shoreline. We've seen large flocks of geese flying over but this is the first time they've stayed  here overnight. Taken together sure signs that the Scottish summer is fast turning into autumn.

The plumbers have installed the new loo and basin in the downstairs cloakroom . Six large floor tiles and a portion of the ceramic wall tiles have been broken displaced. The job of finding a tiler now begins. " It was a wee bit more complicated than I'd allowed for in my estimate " is the departing comment by Murdo the plumber.

At the house in town the painter is planning to work on Sunday in order to get the windows finished. He too has a large backlog of work that needs to be completed before the students return. The painter worked until eight last night which is a good indication of the time pressures the local tradesmen are operating under. 

It's a Bank Holiday south of the border. The streets busy with English families enjoying a last weekend together before the schools start again. Down by the golf course the accents and the dress styles abruptly change - you could always believe you were in the US midwest.

The weather remains bright but we're well into the take along some 'extra layers' time of the year.

We park the car by the shoe shop under the unyielding gaze of a Jack Russell who silently makes it clear we are not going to steal any van he's guarding.

One week before the first years arrive. Young couples flat sharing for the first time are drifting into town. So too are students from far away time zones wanting to acclimatize before lectures begin. In Starbucks we see a table of three stylish Valley girls coming to terms with jet lag . An uber cool Patagonia and Ray Ban wearing guy joins them and observes that ' the first couple of years are the worst '. I'm not sure this is what they wanted to hear and they laugh just a little too heartily. He's 'doing' quantum computing and after his final year is set to head back to San Jose. The girls seem impressed but when he goes ( after , perhaps euphemistically, promising to 'show them the ropes ' and arranging to meet them in Nandos for dinner ) their conversation turns to the lack of familiar brands of almond milk in the supermarkets. How will they survive the hardship ?

'The Font' gets this mornings Wordle in two. This success follows a recent Wordle 'dry spell'.

London music :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxz-vJ8vHfY

Chinese humour:https://www.ramble.media/p/is-xi-jinping-funny

What a woman :https://engelsbergideas.com/portraits/agent-zo-the-spy-who-saved-poland/

A Nobel prize winner talks to one of our local professors. What will happen and what should happen are, of course, two different things. Acceptance rates for the local profs courses are 4% this year :https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/talking-with-phillips-obrien

Mind stretching tetration :https://www.quantamagazine.org/busy-beaver-hunters-reach-numbers-that-overwhelm-ordinary-math-20250822/

Saturday morning excitement.

The plumbers are due to fit a new loo in the downstairs cloakroom. Brenda, the elder plumbers hopelessly inefficient but extremely cheerful  girlfriend / secretary / accounts clerk, phones late on Friday night from the bowling alley in Kirkcaldy to let us know she's having a cheeseburger. She also informs us the team will ' be along bright and early in the morning. Hope that's no a problem  '.

Murdo ( the plumber ) and Gary ( the younger brother who carries the bags and is clinically taciturn ) show up as promised. In fact they're here so early that a cruise ship and oil supply vessel at anchor in the bay are still lit up like Coney Island . Both plumbers have those trendy new There's a cat asleep on my head haircuts that are very short at the side but long every where else. Gary, the taciturn one unloads the new loo from the back of the van and happily informs us that he's brought our ' Bog in a box '.  'The Font' thinks taciturnity is perhaps an underrated virtue.

Soon Gary and Murdo have installed themselves in the cloakroom. Fitting the new loo and basin is not an easy job. Or, to put it another way, the two brothers find it more complicated than they'd originally thought. The new loo has an integral water reservoir. The old one didn't. The old loo had the water pipes on the left hand side, the replacement has them on the right. Murdo has solutions for every eventuality -  some of which are practical. 

We leave Murdo and Gary to get on with it. By the time we go the elder brother is holding forth on the handling of his newly acquired ( but not new ) Audi A4. He has great plans to 'personalize' and 'improve' it. A respray is top of the to do list followed by lowering the suspension.

Most of the wild flowers have had their time but as we head down the track to the shore the sun rise picks out one tiny variety that is only now coming into bloom.

Back at the house there are long periods of banging interspersed with equally long periods of alarming silence. Gary sings while he works. The sound he emits is remarkable but not in a talent just waiting to be discovered way. Every so often Murdo emerges to tell me of a new problem. He does this with a bubbly cheerfulness that suggests he and  Brenda are well suited for each other.

The job will take a wee bit longer than planned but they hope to be finished by lunchtime. He asks how many replacement floor tiles we have which is the cue for us to head out of the house and into town. Sometimes it's best for the nerves to leave the workmen alone.

Top 10 fastest growing cities in the world ( I've not even heard of most of them ) :https://techpoint.africa/guide/10-fastest-growing-cities-in-the-world/

This made me chuckle :https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/08/gavin-newsom-social-media-trump/683968/

How animals think :https://theconversation.com/can-ai-teach-us-how-animals-think-263545

The sun is busy :https://www.livescience.com/space/the-sun/jaw-dropping-photo-captures-solar-tornado-and-gigantic-plasma-eruption-raging-on-the-sun-at-the-same-time

Five cruise ships.

The rising sun outlines the offshore wind farms turbines.  Further out to sea there's another, even bigger one, being built. One thing Scotland doesn't lack is wind. Construction vessels plough their way backwards and forwards across the horizon day and night. Recently cruise ships have started to detour so that their passengers can get a close up look at these 600 foot high leviathans. Five ships passed by yesterday on their way to the Orkneys. When we first arrived here three years ago Princess or Holland America rarely if ever ventured into these parts. Now the cooler air lures hoardes of passengers to the north. How quickly times change .

In the other direction the farmer is busy bailing up the remaining straw. The largest hare either of us has ever seen stands and watches.

In town work on the Tiger Woods/Justin Timberlake sports bar has burst into life. After being deserted for much of the summer the workmen have reappeared. Overnight new Portakabins have been installed and this morning they've started digging a trench for upgraded electrical cables. Digging the trench requires the installation of temporary traffic lights. There are now two sets of traffic lights within a hundred metres of each other. This confuses the local drivers and what passes ( in these parts ) for a traffic jam soon builds up .

Further down the road the surveyors have found asbestos in the roof space of the old 16th century building next to the chapel. Mere mention of the word asbestos and the university health and safety team have sprung into overdrive. Scaffolding now covers the building and the cafe on the ground floor has been closed.

We find a parking spot down by the cathedral and watch a woman spend five whole minutes taking selfies of herself in front of the cafe where William met Kate ... allegedly. She is completely  oblivious to the fact she's standing on a busy road. After a car hoots she repositions herself closer to the pavement where she continues to snap away.

Life here ( as you may be able to tell ) before the students arrive is very, very quiet.

Good news for Bees :https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c776kynn771o

Computer myths :https://www.popsci.com/diy/computer-myths/

Springing up.

At the village bus stop unhappy youngsters in their new, two sizes too large, school uniforms peer at their phones. Overly long sleeves and jackets that come down to the knees a sign that they are at that age where ' they're springing up ' . 

We're at the cheese shop early. The shop has been written up in a continental travel magazine and by mid-morning it becomes thronged with tourists ordering 50 grams of this and 50 grams of that . This makes getting served a 'leisurely' process. We also have to go to the house in town and see the builders who are replacing the street front sash windows. A visit from the planning officer to ensure the replacements are ' historically compliant ' is scheduled.

It's still 30 degrees in Madrid which may explain why there are so many Spanish tourists around. They, and visiting golfers from the mid-west, are keeping the hotels and restaurants busy if not full. Everyone seems to be enjoying the cool morning air. The manager of one of the new hotels stops to tell us that there are many more Chinese tourists booking rooms. They used to travel in big groups but in the last year or two they've begun to travel in smaller groups or as couples. They come to look at the home of golf, marvel at the Harry Potterish architecture and marvel at the exoticism of fish and chips. York is apparently their favourite UK destination . 

The refuse men and seagulls remain locked in battle. Large waste bins are provided for the local restaurants along with strong rejoinders to close the lids firmly. Lids that are not firmly closed allow the gulls to scavenge to their hearts delight . You then end up with situations like this. I'll bet this doesn't make its way onto TikTok.

A French company brings clients to Scotland on cycling trips. They stay in the best 5 star hotel and then drive off to scenic spots in the Highlands for a days adventure on two wheels before returning for dinner at the hotel. At lunchtime a suitably French meal, with wine, is provided. This is a very French , and sensible, way of doing things.

Into the bookstore to pick up a copy of this book which has been well reviewed. Many of the names mentioned have moved seamlessly onto the national stage.

In the village the farmers wife tends  a sheltered but disorganized garden that continues to remain gloriously in bloom. Acanthus is slowly but surely self seeding and taking over the flower beds which gives it a Mediterranean air. .By contrast our plot by the sea is pummeled by the wind and is now, bar the lavender,  pretty much over.

Old remedies for dealing with heat :https://theconversation.com/six-tips-from-the-middle-ages-on-how-to-beat-the-summer-heat-263290

A sensible way to collect garbage Indian style :https://www.bbc.co.uk/future/article/20250818-the-indian-garbage-cafes-giving-out-food-in-exchange-for-plastic-waste

The old US embassy in London has been reborn as a Chinese hotel :https://www.rosewoodhotels.com/en/the-chancery-rosewood

In a straight line this restaurant is just a quick hop across the water :https://under.no/slik-kommer-du-hit/