The new cafe.

Two weeks to Easter Monday. Less than a month and we may be ( or may not be ) flying off to see the west lake in Hangzhou. The year has picked up its pace. On Friday and Saturday nights the green Northern Lights were swirling away on the horizon over Boddin Head. Last night , when we wrap up and venture out into the garden with a glass of Pommard, there was nothing. On the radio this morning a man tells us the North Koreans have been helping the Iranians with their long range missiles. We turn the dial to the classic music channel which is a less fraught way of segueing into the new week.

Two tractors hard at work as we set off on our morning constitutional. A month ago we were averaging 12,000 steps a day. Now, with the sunshine, it's closer to 20,000. The farmer is deep ploughing the field on the left , his youngest son dealing with the field on the right. Eldest son, up from Edinburgh, drives out on a buggy with coffee and bacon rolls. The heavy rain earlier in the year has pushed their plans back and they're racing to get the sowing schedule on track by Easter.  For the younger lad the next three months bring Easter, his IB exams and then the excitement of  America and the World Cup. Life is peculiarly hectic when you're seventeen.

The elder Jack Russell is also up and about. She waddles over to see us. Her joy ( and a wildly waving tail ) makes it difficult to walk in a straight line. Younger sister is confined to the farmhouse garden while the ploughing is underway. As we walk down to the shore can hear her complaining about the unjustness of it all.

The golfers are out early. The Old Course already busy, the golf academy even more so. Local fathers and teenage sons are out getting an hours putting in before work or school.

The new cafe above the Golf Museum is now up and running. It's called The Claret and serves one of those all day menus. It doesn't open until 8:30 so we're too early to try it out today. Bacon rolls are £6 which, by St Andrews standards, is reasonable.

So starts a new week in a small quiet Scottish town where nothing ever happens.

Very Italian. Bookstore by day, cinema by night :https://giuntiodeon.it/en

Unusual fact of the day. A higher % of Sikhs in Canada than India :https://x.com/mrsunshinebaby/status/2034859082960839119/photo/1

Hadrians Wall was more peaceful than we'd thought :https://aspectsofhistory.com/hadrians-wall-strategic-masterpiece-or-monumental-folly/