What a week

What a week that was. The phrase ' I can have Usha take a look at it ' enters the popular lexicon. We overhear two exceedingly pretty valley girls in the supermarket use it which is a sign of how quickly linguistic trends develop in the age of social media. Elsewhere the King prayed with the Pope for the first time since the Reformation, a start was made on building a 90,000 square foot extension on the 55,000 square foot White House ( which is like adding a conservatory that's twice the size of your house ), an aircraft carrier popped up in the Caribbean to the surprise of cruise ships en route to Miami and an advert caused US-Canada ties to fray . On top of that Belgium vetoed EU plans to use frozen Russian funds to help Ukraine. Let's hope Xi's meeting goes well and that the coming week is calmer. Here are some observations of a Brit visiting some old folk in Texas  :https://www.edwest.co.uk/p/the-baby-boomers-last-sigh

Overnight the clocks have changed. It's sunrise just after seven and sunset just before five. The early sunrise is great but darkness falling so early will take a bit of getting used to. 

By the time we're heading back from our morning  walk there are half a dozen cars parked in the potato field. The early Christian tombs that have been excavated will be covered over today to protect them against the winter gales. Soon all that will be left to remind us of the archaeologists  presence will be the recently 'serviced' Portaloo. 'The Font' observes that getting a Portaloo removed always seems to be more difficult than having one delivered.

 

The sea this morning is thrashing angrily against the rocks in a way that tells you a storm is building up in the North Sea.

The shops in town are empty. The students have had a 'study' week which means they've either gone travelling or have headed home to get their laundry done.

We find some fresh pomegranates in the farm shop. In France the villagers used to drink champagne with fresh pomegranate juice. This evening we shall do the same.

Ignoring our internal lunar clock :https://theconversation.com/humans-have-an-internal-lunar-clock-but-light-pollution-is-disrupting-it-266717

I hadn't thought about the implications of this :https://olgalautman.substack.com/p/the-billionaires-behind-the-throne

Passing through :https://www.quantamagazine.org/first-shape-found-that-cant-pass-through-itself-20251024/

Are we alone ? :https://www.universetoday.com/articles/are-we-in-the-solitude-zone-of-the-universe

St.Louis of old :https://thedebrief.org/the-rise-and-mysterious-fall-of-cahokia-researchers-unearth-new-secrets-of-americas-greatest-lost-ancient-megacity/

One of the more unusual arrivals in the inbox this week :https://jamestown.org/program/moscow-alarmed-by-revival-and-spread-of-promethean-ideas/