Reverting to form.

The life of a 19 year old in St Andrews is not all exams. There is plenty of room for some high jinks :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ngj2fJOAiBw  The dog walkers at the 1:20 mark look quite perplexed. 

The weather in May has been wonderful but now it's reverted to form. Since five this morning the wind  has been blowing from the North in one of those endless gusts that doesn't pause for breath. In most places the squalls ease off every so often but not here. Faced with this unrelenting tempest the sea below The last wee house before Denmark has worked itself up into an angry mood. Waves thud against the rocks and spray scuds up into our faces. The gannets love it. We stand and watch them - and the cormorants and shags - diving for fish. They circle, rise and then plummet deep down into the water, wings pressed hard against their bodies. Despite it being barely six o'clock there are three French minibuses parked out by the village hall. They belong to a travel company that specializes in walking tours of Scotland. Their clients have been dropped off seven miles away on the coastal path and the friendly young staff are preparing breakfast in readiness for their arrival in an hour or twos time. The village hall looks very grand with  trestle tables, chairs and a portable six ring gas stove. The croissants, I note, come from Marks and Spencers. The village hall  'facilities' are getting a thorough spring cleaning. 

The Hebridean sheep in their long coats are oblivious to the cold. They graze from one end of the paddock to the other without so much as looking up to see who, or what, we are. The females have all been moved to pastures inland leaving thirteen grumpy males to keep the grass under control.

Down to the fish shop. Lemon Sole, monkfish and halibut will see us through to mid-week. We were going to buy some langoustines but they've just come off the boat and are waving their claws in a way that says they're still very much alive.

Back in the village the calves on the village green are getting braver.  Two of them wander over to greet us. Methinks that local mothers, taking their children off to nursery school, have taken to stopping by with a carrot ... or two.

Events in London maybe crazy but life in a small Scottish North Sea village does its level best to remain calm and unchanging.

The spark that makes us different :https://press.princeton.edu/ideas/the-night-humans-learned-to-sleep-together

Maybe you need to be an astrophysicist to enjoy this :https://www.centauri-dreams.org/2026/05/15/przybylskis-star-still-bizarre-after-all-these-years/

Nearly blowing up the Statue of Liberty :https://www.military.com/german-spies-blew-up-new-york-harbor-lady-libertys-torch-never-reopened

Remembrance as art form :https://iveyredding.substack.com/p/in-the-garden

A susbtack with snippets of poetry - some beautiful. I shall dip into again as the week wears on :https://substack.com/@coralwarmth