The village horse.

The UK has won 3 gold medals in the winter Olympics. Considering UK winters are wet rather than snowy this medal tally is something of a surprise to all concerned. The UK rarely, if ever, appears in the rankings.  The news reader does her best to sound on the right side of excited.

Here it's another grey morning although the rain has, for now, stopped. It's that time of year when the fourth year students wake up to the fact that final exams are two months away so there is a hint of diligent purpose in the air. People scurry towards the library. For some you have the feeling that the library is not their natural stomping ground. Younger students do not share this sense of urgency.

The village horse watches us from behind the fence. Tomorrow we'll come out with some carrots. Village people pause to talk to the horses as they head up the hill towards the bus stop. In rural parts like this with a large pre-schooler population the definition of 'villager' is not solely human centric. The same held true in France. There is always time in the day to talk to a horse.

A half hearted sunrise. Regular as clockwork the Frankfurt to San Francisco and Los Angeles Lufthansa flights leave their contrails high in the sky above us. For the passengers there will be breakfast over Scotland followed by lunch somewhere over Alberta.

It's 2,000 steps to the cathedral from where we park the car. By the time we get there the sun is up . The first coach of the day arrives from Edinburgh and deposits a group of sensibly dressed Spaniards on the pavement near Starbucks. There is soon a long line waiting to use their wash rooms.

For all of two minutes the castle ruins look almost Caribbean in the sunshine. It doesn't last. A bank of cloud drifts over and plunges us back into February weather.

Balloons in the window of a student flat indicate someone is waking up to a 20th birthday. Is any decade as exciting as your 20's ? What adventures lie ahead.

Coming up to four years next week. One mans simple dreams :https://x.com/i/status/2022728972983808252

Chicago in 1883 :https://birdhistory.substack.com/p/how-about-a-game-dinner

Idiocy:https://econofact.org/the-economic-costs-of-brexit-on-the-uk

All I needed to know about WalMart although the term techno-fascism is a bit jaded and could be improved on:https://www.nplusonemag.com/online-only/online-only/the-beast-of-bentonville/

Changing views on China :https://www.nplusonemag.com/issue-52/the-intellectual-situation/sinophobic-sinophilia/

A substack gem :https://gallery98.substack.com/p/whats-your-greatest-fear-long-island