A time of perfect balance

A chilly 4 degrees this morning. Coupled to a bracing 40 mph wind this makes us quickly retreat back indoors to don additional layers. 'The Font' puts on a long black quilted coat which has been gathering dust since April. Angus digs out his ear protecting bobble hat. Both, in their own way, workable antidotes to first day of winter climate shock. Tomorrow is the September equinox. A time when the earth is tilted neither away from nor toward the sun. Sylvia Plath called it " The best of the summer gone, and the new fall not yet born. The odd uneven time ". Well up here there's some doubt as to whether we've skipped the fall are now fast heading towards winter. It is however dry.

Usually the pre-dawn quiet of the little beach by the pier is only interrupted by dog walkers. This morning a group of highly enthusiastic teenage kayakers are up and about early. They laugh as they drag the kayaks across the beach to the waters edge. Two of the males bellow as the cold waters of the North Sea lap over their feet. The hardy young female kayakers in their group seem unimpressed. They all finally set off under the watchful eye of a watchful sailing club coach in an orange zodiac.

Advent calendars in the supermarket. The local retailers are now venturing into the foothills of Christmas.

Frog cakes have a starring role in the bakers window ....

... as do fudge donuts.

The fancy 'cocktail ' bar is adjusting its entertainment schedule to meet the needs of a student audience.

So starts a quiet Sunday in a small Scottish town adjusting to the return of 10,000 students while gearing up for a large golf tournament. The tourists also seem to be returning although now the tour buses are fewer and the passengers of a more grand-parently age. Based on the number of buses we see parked by the cathedral this company seems to have a near monopoly on September tours:https://www.tauck.co.uk/tours/scotland-escorted-tour?tcd=sd2026&filters=q:scotland

Sunday morning Schubert :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUhOZYnqEfE

Dog portraits. Published next month :https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/alison-friend/dog-only-knows/9781648294785/

Roman cuisine. Not as bizarre as we'd been led to believe :https://bigthinkmedia.substack.com/p/would-you-survive-a-week-in-ancient

An essay about going to college in the US :https://amandafortini.substack.com/p/an-education

Interesting history :https://www.nber.org/papers/w34225

A defence against flu ? :https://worksinprogress.co/issue/the-death-rays-that-guard-life/

A small ceremony

'They' are up and about early. Four hundred or so students run across the road in front of us. 'They' are still young and enthusiastic enough to be keen on communal events including mass runs at seven in the morning. Will this zest for life survive the cold Scottish winter mornings ? 

We park the car and head to the beach.  As we go we pass the great and the good of the golfing world greeting the newly elected Captain of the Royal and Ancient.  All the local caddies line the fairway and a cannon is fired to get the days play underway. People clap politely and startled sea gulls take to the air. Hip flasks appear. There is a small ceremony which is like the golf worlds election of a new Pope but without the smoke. The members of the Rules Committee emerge onto the clubhouse balcony. Everyone smiles. A young New Zealander in shorts is presented with a gold sovereign for retrieving the new Captains golf ball from the rough. The ancient tannoy system crackles into life and we hear the youngster say ' I'm from Dunedin and it's surreal to be a part of this history '. 

Previous Captains are out to watch the new incumbent tee off. Blazer, flannels and flat caps are the standard plumage of retired committee members. Judges and surgeons seem to be well represented. For the new Captain teeing off under the critical gaze of the games college of cardinals must be an extremely stressful moment. Now would not be the time to splice the ball.

One of the sheep has two white patches below her eyes. For a moment or two we think they are her eyes. She stops and stares at us. We stare back. Last year the sheep were taken inland for the winter but this year, so we're told by a passing beach ranger, they will stay here all year. " They're frae the Hebrides so it's no as if they'll feel the cold ".

A pair of pied wagtails on the turf in front of the lecture halls. They seem completely unperturbed by student comings and goings.

Back at the last wee house before Denmark the wild brambles are still fruiting away.

Life here is settling back into its comforting routines although the temperature is set to fall to just 4 degrees tonight. The decision to turn on the heating was the right one. This coming week we are off to Hadrians Wall and the Lake District. Restaurants have been booked and wine lists carefully studied. On our first port of call there is a very old school St Joseph and on the second night an even more old school Pomerol.

Bird names:https://birdhistory.substack.com/p/chunk-ducks-blatherskites-butterballs

Hotel and private home:https://www.tajhotels.com/en-in/hotels/umaid-bhawan-palace-jodhpur

American history :https://www.coolidgereview.com/articles/tyranny-anatomized

Sharing the view.

The state visit went well. St Georges Hall looked spectacular for the formal dinner  and even the press conference with the Prime Minister went off without triggering anything 'volcanic'.  The poor King looked tired but his speech was a master class in diplomatic skill.

On the way down to Edinburgh on the train an old and clearly very loved Westie has made himself at home. He is travelling with a gentleman of greatly advanced years who is going to a funeral in Ravelston Dykes. Dog and owner look remarkably alike in that way dog and owners often do. 

The Westie, having settled, is not going to move. Passengers detour around him.

Even the ticket inspector stops for a wee blether.

The Scots are supposedly a dour and undemonstrative race but neither of these traits applies when it comes to Westies. 

In Edinburgh we discover a  fresh pasta shop in the no mans land between Dundas Street and Stockbridge proper. Nduja and Mascarpone ravioli catch our eye. They open at noon and close at nine so if we want to take fresh pasta home with us we will need to arrange future trips down to Edinburgh around a later departure.

Next door there is a rather chic wine bar where we can enjoy the last of the summer sunshine with a glass of something restorative. At a neighbouring table an  unblinking family pooch watches his mistress enjoy a cup of coffee and a biscuit .

The hotel corridor is very brown - and long.

Our room is peculiarly dark and the shower is surprisingly far from the bed. Apart from that ( and pillows that are as squidgy as the late season strawberries ) it's very comfortable. Best of all the shower, when you get there, only has two taps. One to turn it on and the other to regulate the temperature. No need for a PhD in mechanical engineering to get the water flowing.

Edinburgh is empty bar townsfolk, arriving students and canny silver haired Americans who know this is the time of year when the weather is at its best and hotel rooms are a third of the price they were just a month ago.  At dinner the Californian couple behind us switch seats half way through their meal. The waiter asks them if everything is alright and they reply that they always switch seats so that both of them can experience the same view. This is the first time we've come across this 'alternating chairs' routine.

Liberal England :https://x.com/MattSingh_/status/1967970526451863668

Wry comment of the day :https://x.com/IAPonomarenko/status/1968430694188687731

Portugals new hotel at the Contemporary Art Museum :https://hotel.macam.pt/en/

#4 may explain why Scots settled here :https://www.buzzfeed.com/scarymouse/facts-that-sound-fake-but-are-true

A beautiful chair :https://www.woodawards.com/portfolio/the-red-loop-windsor/

Too sweet ?

Every day now more and more geese are heading south along the coast. They fly low and in flocks of sixty or seventy. This morning there's been perhaps a thousand or so determinedly passing the house. Some wheel back, circle and then pause to breakfast in the barley field. If you wanted a sign that autumn is here then this is it. We always turn our eyes to the skies as they hurry past. Their honking is somehow as mundanely miraculous as it is reassuring.

Another sign autumn is here is the way the laughter and intensity of the students has changed the towns vibe. The majority of the youngsters have quickly discovered that it's never wise to leave the comfort of their dorms without rainwear. 

We're off to Edinburgh. Time for Angus to see the eye surgeon for his 4 monthly check-up. We'll stay in town and go to the fish restaurant with the good wine list. The Met Office forecast promises it will be dry with a high of 18 and a low of 11. We shall see.

Yesterdays strawberries looked the part but were close to being over ripe. Another word for that is squidgy. Half of them got thrown away. This is a pretty clear indication that we're now at the end of the season.

Salted caramel milk chocolate dates sound sweet even to someone with  the taste buds of an eight year old.

Tequila and Lime milk chocolate also sounds high on the sugar scale although preferable to the chocolate covered dates.

Normal service shall resume tomorrow.

Weather and books.

The weather remains well behaved. Rainy at night, bright and dry during the day. The new students are being lulled into the belief that Scottish North Sea coastal weather isn't so dire. Just wait until the end of October and they'll get a surprise. The organizers of the golf tournament must be praying that this sunny spell continues. Last year the rain was torrential from the start of play to the very end. After that the sun came out for two weeks.

At the end of every month we send the university library photos of the books we've read in the last four weeks and don't want to keep. They then come back and say which ones - if any - they would like us to  drop off at the front desk. This keeps our post downsizing bookcases from overflowing and provides the library with some unexpected acquisitions. They probably take 60% of what we offer. In this electronic age I'd thought books might be a thing of the past but the librarian tells me they have 17 kilometers of book shelves. She might have said miles rather than kilometers but whatever it's still a lot.

These are the August offerings. Sh*tty Breaks was a humorous and light hearted  tour of British towns no one ever visits and scored 8/10.  Central Europe was brilliant as was Saudi Arabia. Both get a 9/10. To see Ourselves was all about modern Scotland. It was enjoyable but I'm not sure how it would resonate with non-Scots. It gets a highly subjective 8/10.

On Xi Jinping although exceedingly worthy was troubled by difficult prose. It got a 4/10. The Partys Interests Come First was more accessible and got an 8/10 but was not what you might describe as an easy read. Modern China has had a very troubled history.  The surprise of the month was The Gods of New York which was written in a jauntily accessible style and served as a reminder that Donald Trumps political views and operational style were already set in stone in the mid 80's. One snippet I didn't know was that the Revd. Al Sharpton was ordained as a minister at the age of 10. I'd give this book a 9/10 maybe because I remember the New York of the late 1980's and this catches its Ed Koch, Bernie Goetz essence so well. 

I'd like to recommend India 5000 years of history but 5000 years is a lot to ask any author to pull off. This one spread the net too widely and didn't. More focused was Shattered Lands which gets a 7/10 for dealing with the issue of Burmese independence from India. From Ring of Steel came the snippet that the last Emperor of Autro-Hungary was made a Saint for curing a nuns chilblains. For its analysis of WW1 politics it gets a 9/10. 

The best thing I've read at the start of the State visit :https://samf.substack.com/p/unserious-president-serious-country

Shopping :https://capitaloneshopping.com/research/thrifting-statistics

Things I didn't know about Rotterdam :https://moverdb.com/port-of-rotterdam/

Chatbots are better :https://reason.com/2025/09/15/chatbots-win-the-debate/

Doctors preconceptions:https://www.acsh.org/news/2025/09/15/dont-believe-everything-you-think-49724

Let the wayward bloom.

The morning radio broadcast leading with the fact that the UK has an important visitor arriving tonight. For the King the next 48 hours will be like walking on eggshells. There again if anyone has been trained for such moments it's him. It will be the biggest security operation since the late Queens funeral.

On our way into town two late running teenagers sprint out into the road directly in front of us from between two parked cars. The little BMW has built in emergency systems that make sounds neither of us knew were possible - chimes, bells, a solitary strangulated klaxon and an exceedingly irritating beep - come as standard. The two boys smile and wave in a manner they must assume to be disarming. There is a reason college towns have 20 mph speed limits . 

From his window display I'd guess the baker also finds life easier ( and more profitable ) now there are 10,000 permanenty hungry youngsters in town. The sale of Fresher biscuits still going strong.

It is the autumn gathering at the Royal and Ancient. A local club member is overseeing a group of 'quiet' American members as they tee off. Each of the visitors has his hand shaken and is told what a singular pleasure it is to meet them. They in turn thank him for being there to oversee things . Polite observations are made about the weather.  Old style undemonstrative and unrushed civility still thrives on both sides of the Atlantic. 

We linger and watch the first three teams head off down the fairway. Spliced shots or ( heaven forfend ) miss strokes are met with a wave of the committee members red flag and a muttered ' Bad luck '. In the distance the Dunhill luxury goods marquee continues to grow.

The members car park is monitored by a burly bearded man in a Hi-Viz jacket. He's there to stop tourists or  students from chancing their luck there. Places are assigned to members and members of the committee. Above them like God in heaven sits The Captain who has a spot reserved for him right at the front door

The paving stones that lead up to the new statue of Tom Morris have inscriptions describing him as the Grand Old Man of Golf. There is also a paving slab that records he was a Church Elder. Golf and Kirk. A very Presbyterian ranking of priorities in this most Presbyterian of towns.

A self seeding dandelion has taken root in the centre of the municipal flower beds. It soars above the red geraniums like a giant iconoclast. I'm tempted to step in and pull it out but decide that in doing so I'd do more damage than good. Sometimes, particularly in a university town,  its best to let the wayward bloom .

The breakfast radio reminds us that this movie was released 60 years ago and proved to be a surprising hit . It was probably the best PR Austria ever had although there is something very Holywood about wandering across barren mountain tops in matching outfits:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvDFoF9sfQA&list=RDRKuqySkqhHw&index=2

Dog domestication :https://www.psypost.org/new-research-complicates-the-story-of-dog-domestication/

This seems to sum it up pretty well :https://www.aei.org/op-eds/how-the-last-two-weeks-shook-the-world-order/

Always be kind:https://snyder.substack.com/p/always-be-kind

Perhaps THE question of our times :https://arachnemag.substack.com/p/the-case-against-social-media-is

Kick starting life.

Today marks the start of a new semester and the town is fast settling into its familiar routines. This morning it's quiet. In fact it's very quiet. In dorms and apartments youngsters are waking up and wishing they hadn't been tempted into going out for a 'quick' drink with their new friends last night. They're also wondering why in heavens name they signed up for a course  that has a lecture at  9:00 am on a Monday morning . 

In the harbour we stand and watch a fat eider duck bobbing around in search of food. If you concentrate you can just about detect a faint hint of warmth in the sunshine. One of the local skippers waves from the back of his boat and says he'll be going out every day from now until mid-October, weather permitting. He's taken a large - 'we'll buy all you can get' - order for fresh lobster from the upmarket caterers at the upcoming Dunhill golf tournament. Seems that Surf and Turf is still considered the height of culinary sophistication amongst the golfing fraternity.

Not a soul to be seen in the cathedral grounds. A curtain seems to have been drawn over the tourist season. Even a week ago the day trippers from Edinburgh would have been lined up waiting to get in. Oddly, there are thirty or so German camper vans parked in the old abbey car park. It must be some sort of German holiday.

By seven am junior lecturers with a busy day of teaching ahead of them are starting to arrive in town. The early bird catches the parking spaces and gets a coffee and a sandwich from Pret a Manger before it gets busy. Behind the closed curtains youngsters in student flats are trying to ignore alarm clocks and succumbing to that age old temptation to spend just five more minutes under the snug bed covers. In an hours time, when the alarm rings again, there will be widespread panic when they realize they've got 30 minutes left to get showered and dressed , grab something to eat and run to their classrooms.

Three American golfers are heading down the shopping street towards the golf course. Their Edinburgh cab driver has dropped them off at the wrong end of town and now they're hauling their clubs half a mile to the Old Course. They are not happy.

Some calming music on the morning radio as we drive back from town :https://youtu.be/xgGNn96MJpY?t=126

The newest in-store restaurant in Paris :https://rh.com/gb/en/paris/lepetit

Arvo Part:https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/music/2025/09/arvo-part-the-holy-minimalist-who-defied-the-soviets

Food waste:https://www.anthropocenemagazine.org/2025/09/zapping-food-waste-with-a-jolt-of-electricity-could-release-its-true-potential/

Bacchanalia.

This mornings post was put up and then promptly swallowed by Blogger.

Here is a brief two minute recap.

The students are in town doing things their parents definitely wouldn't approve of. Last night there was a huge pre-semester firework display accompanied by music that was so loud we could hear it five miles down the coast.

Strawberries still for sale in the greengrocers but they're getting smaller and woodier. Another couple of weeks and the season will be over.

Wild things down on the beach. Twenty or so sand yachts scooting backwards and forwards along the sand. A spaniel defies danger and sits and watches these wind propelled teenagers whistle by. The windsurfers, volley ball players and local dog owners coexist uneasily.

How pristine the countryside looks after a shower.

I'll try and resurrect the links later today but here is a lady who says being 3 months pregnant helps with diaphragm control :https://youtu.be/jBatI3HRKtI?t=4216

Insomnia Quarterly looks at a suitably exciting subject :https://isonomiaquarterly.com/archive/volume-3-issue-3/legal-codes-artificial-intelligence/

The mother of all eruptions : https://theconversation.com/a-massive-eruption-74-000-years-ago-affected-the-whole-planet-archaeologists-use-volcanic-glass-to-figure-out-how-people-survived-254782

Is America more English or Dutch ? :https://www.coolidgereview.com/articles/our-first-revolution-barone

Fylfot.

We're on the beach early. It was cold last night which caused our central heating boiler to kick into noisy super boost mode at 5:30. The weather around here has settled down into a warm and bright one minute, cloudy and cold the next routine.  In the dry patch between squalls we head out for our morning walk. Heavy rain is forecast for later in the day.

Town is chaos. In fact its as close to Biblically proportioned chaos as a small Scottish town can be. The last of  the students have finally arrived. Yesterday I'd reckon four thousand of them decamped into town between breakfast and the late afternoon. Today, despite the early hour, there are queues everywhere. Double parked fathers, keen to get on the motorway to Gloucestershire before it gets busy,  give their sons embarrassed hugs while mothers dab their eyes with hankies carried for just such a farewell moment. " You will make sure to call at least once a week  ?" said to nineteen year old daughters who most certainly won't. There's at least a dozen youngsters standing on the pavement outside the kitchen store waiting to squeeze in to buy those essential little things that have been forgotten. A Dutch girls asks for a 'turner' . This causes some confusion among the sales staff  but turns out to be the modern term for a spatula.

At the supermarket check out we observe a group of fresh faced males being told in no uncertain terms that alcohol cannot be sold in Scotland before ten am. They shrug their shoulders and return their bottles of Prosecco to the wine sections shelves. Two American lads inform the lady at check out that in the US they can buy alcohol any time of the day or night. Perhaps they think this somewhat inaccurate statement will shame her into making an exception to the law for them.  " Well you're not in America now " she says with a snappy directness that temporarily silences them. They leave unhappy at the injustice of being denied access to a cheeky £13.99 Romanian Malbec to go with their corn flakes. I'm guessing the check out lady has heard this start of term nonsense many times before.

With St Andrews mobbed  we head off to the neighbouring village to complete our shopping.

Here life is calmer. Much calmer. The mobile bank has parked on the market place but trade on this breezy Saturday morning is on the non-existent side of slow. We have a chat with the lady in the greengrocers who tell us the Spanish plums on sale by the front door are the biggest she's ever seen.

One man who is busy is the chimney sweep now that the colder weather has arrived and people are turning their attention to lighting fires. He's booked out for the next six weeks. We prudently had him show up at the last wee house before Denmark before the end of August which is an indication of how age and experience work silently together.

We pop into the local museum. This is a higgledy-piggledy place. On the first floor we find a cabinet devoted to Cubs and Brownies. This has a small swastika badge on display. Small local museums all over the world are home to things that surprise. Neither of us had ever seen the word Fylfot before.

Seems some Americans think we live in a very dark place :https://www.politico.com/newsletters/politico-nightly/2025/09/12/how-the-uk-became-american-conservatives-worst-nightmare-00562338

After the Romans left :https://gizmodo.com/new-study-questions-a-major-assumption-about-the-fall-of-the-roman-empire-2000657691

Indigestion :https://theconversation.com/indigestion-is-commonplace-but-sometimes-concerning-heres-what-you-need-to-know-262982

The skies are busy

A decidedly autumnal 9 degrees this morning. The decision to turn the heating on was a wise one. Today the boys in blue are up and about early. A reconnaissance aircraft accompanied by two fighters heads off towards the North at first light. Events in Poland seem to have caused the tempo of flights to increase. The noise the aircraft make as they climb away causes a large flock of geese to take off with an irritated squawking. 

There's been some rain in the wee hours but it's bright out towards the sea .....

.... while inland the sky is black and a storm seems to be building. As we set off on our morning walk a rainbow touches the hay stacks with that 'Celtic light' . Scotland is the place for rainbows like this. We're seeing two or three of them a day. Maybe that's why there's a Neolithic cemetery down by the waters edge. What more magical spot could there be ?

Groups of students on the beach. They're all walking towards some form of happening down by the estuary. Champagne bottles are in evidence. When you're 18 and imbued with limitless energy why not simply head off from last nights rave to a breakfast gig?  The students seem to have quickly discovered that layering is an essential survival tool in Scotland. A group of alpha males rush hollering into the sea and just as quickly come hollering back out. Passing co-eds seem unimpressed.

There's a big golf tournament starting on the 29th. Marquees are being erected down by the 17th tee.https://www.alfreddunhilllinks.com/  The middle aged golfer travelling around Scotland with a group of buddies has been replaced by semi-pro players who are leaner and more aggressive.

The municipal park departments flower beds are enjoying the last of the balmy weather. 

£5 cocktails. A small hotel near the wee house in town knows how to attract the freshers. The rest of the student body is now flooding into town ahead of teaching starting up again on Monday. This will be a weekend of heavy partying.

Life in this small town by the North Sea is heading towards its winter routines and we are six or so weeks away from heading off to the Arctic Circle.

The university video team mark the passage into a new academic year with this rather introspective offering :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sqh74KwVh4c

More about coffee :https://psyche.co/ideas/why-we-should-treat-caffeine-like-the-brain-altering-drug-it-is

Sunshine and smiles :https://www.the-scientist.com/does-sunlight-make-us-happy-it-s-complicated-say-researchers-73382

Science and secrecy :https://3quarksdaily.com/3quarksdaily/2025/09/how-much-of-science-is-secret.html