Pilgrims of a sort.

The wild fires in France and Spain dominate the morning news bulletin. It seems that there's been some rain overnight which should hopefully help tamp things down.

We park the car and detour into chapel. One of the organ scholars is an early bird and we sit on a bench listening to him practising  for a weekend wedding. It is a small but much appreciated luxury to be able to sit in an empty building and secretly listen to the Old 100th echoing through the rafters. At this time of the day we have the place to ourselves. Give it an hour and the tour buses from Edinburgh will be disgorging a stream of visitors.

Todays interest is provided by a group of thirty or so Catholic pilgrims who are heading down the street to the cathedral to celebrate a Latin mass. There is a moment or two of concertina like chaos as the front of the procession stops for the traffic lights at the pedestrian crossing while the rear keeps on going.

They are led by a man singing medieval pilgrim songs. These are also in Latin. He has some form of effective amplification device which broadcasts the sound in a radius of at least a hundred yards around them. Five priests, including one in a biretta, direct the procession towards the cathedral. You don't see many birettas in these Presbyterian heartlands.

The pilgrims have a well behaved intensity to them. The cathedral grounds don't open until nine so what they will do until then is something of a mystery.

At the other end of town the golfers are waiting (im)patiently to see if they've been lucky in todays ballot. Two English lads peer through the windows of the R&A. " You need to wear a jacket to get in there " says one to the other in a tone of voice that can best be described as awestruck. The boys are also pilgrims of a sort.

I'm not sure what skill sets this teaches :https://x.com/ChinaNow24/status/2081265509698302250

Stoic philosophy :https://fredericpoag.substack.com/p/a-longing-for-what-never-was

This is becoming a recurrent topic :https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/technology-did-you-know-general-science/dogs-speak-breakthrough-or-illusion

How well did you do ? :https://www.buzzfeed.com/lizmrichardson/us-history-elementary-school-quiz

Where does this man get his energy ? The UK and the US in one day ? :https://x.com/ZelenskyyUa/status/2081975587149602856