Gently rotating four year olds.

For the last week the weather has been dourly Scottish in a rain one minute, sunshine the next sort of way. This week a 'heat wave' is forecast. It's due to get to all of 24 degrees on Tuesday. The 'heat wave' will be welcomed by the local school kids who are enjoying their last week of freedom before they start back next Monday. Today the BBC warns us  says the temperatures  may hit the high teens.

The local news leads with a story about hotel prices in Edinburgh. Some bright spark has organized a series of Oasis concerts at the same time the Festival is on. In festival season hotel rooms are impossible to find at the best of times. Add on the Oasis fans and those going to the comedy shows and there's nowhere to stay within a hundred miles. Peak season prices have doubled. Some of the hotels out here an hour north can't believe their luck and are happily  charging £2,000+ for a room that goes for less than a tenth of that in December.

The farmer is up and about early. This morning he's started  harvesting the potato field. From the courtyard we wave and he waves back. Waving is a big part of village life. Puppy and her elder sister are safely asleep ( and corralled) in the sun on the shelf at the back of the tractor cab.

It's the time of year when the funfair comes to  town. A group of concerned parents are watching their toddlers rotate gently on the merry go round that's appeared on the road outside the bakers. The toddlers -sitting in what appear to be giant tea cups - scream in terrorized delight. The carrousels and 'attractions' have been coming here since medieval times. Local residents loathe it because two of the towns three streets are closed off. This makes parking - and doing anything else - a complete joke. 

Strawberries - or at least bright red dye - remain a key element of the bakers seasonal offerings.

Down by the harbour the tide is out. We watch young gulls preening themselves in the fresh water. The American Bar Association summer school finished on Saturday. This morning a group of twenty or so organizers are waiting on the quayside with their bags hoping the airport shuttle is on its way to collect them for the morning flight home. One woman checks her bag every minute or so to make sure she's not forgotten her passport. Another agitatedly wonders if she should call the dispatcher for the fourth time in case the driver doesn't know where the harbour is. A man with an unruly shock of white hair and a ' Scotland Summer School 2025 ' jacket bawls out ' Don't you worry about it Marcie. They'll be here soon enough'. This does little to reassure her.

The fishing boats on the seaward side of the lock gates ready to cast off and head out to the lobster grounds.

An Omoda in startling red parked next to us in town. This is a brand I'd never heard of before. Seems the Chinese are dumping exporting cars at prices that no European manufacturer can come close to matching. The grille on this one is even more annoying than that on the little BMW. It has something of  a Piranha fish with a mouth full of teeth look to it.

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