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