A software glitch.

I do not know what's going on with blogger today. I've tried to fix it but nothing can be done and some , but not all, of the text is backed in white. The links don't seem to work and then hey presto they do. Hopefully, tomorrow the glitch will have disappeared. I'll come back to it later in the day and see if the glitch has gone. It may be something to do with posting from the i-Pad rather than the desktop.

The good news is that something wonderful and delicate and unexpected ( and tall ) appearing in the rock garden in the courtyard.

The smoked fish guy is running late and is just setting out his stall at the monthly market. He's recently started to do fish pates and gives 'The Font' some mackerel and salmon to try. He makes the best roast salmon we've ever tasted.

Later this week a new restaurant is opening up where Brewdog used to be before it went bankrupt. There seems to be a Greek flavour to the menu which may test the taste buds of the more conservative locals. Main courses are kept below £30 which is now considered to be 'cheap'. We peer through the open door and see that the builders are in doing some last minute 'snagging'. They don't seem happy to be working on a Sunday.

The cheese monger has missed a letter 'C' from their bill board. When it comes to cheese 'exciting' an 'exiting' are very different concepts.

The workmen installing new refrigeration units in Tesco are coming to the end of their work. The store opens again next week. While they've been closed Sainsburys at the other end of the street has done their level best to keep up with the heightened demand but with limited success. At the end of the day the shelves are a bare as a supermarket in Hoxas Albania.

Saturday night. The Manhattanites have asked me to call them. It's a year since we've last spoken and I'm not sure whether the familiarity will still be there. Oddly, it is. They've interrupted their weekend because they're unsure how the war in Iran is going. Some of them are firm adherents of the that 'one last push will do it' school of thought. A minority (?) have drifted into a form of inarticulate despair. One man, in his late 30's and an unlikely candidate for introspection, asks if its inevitable that things get worse. This is an unusual question to be asking while sitting beside a pool in the Hamptons .They wonder if Iran, after six months of bombing, will come to the table. They also wonder if the mischief makers in Moscow and Beijing can resist the temptation to get involved. All are puzzled why Washington thinks Russia and China are well disposed to them. This coming week will tell us a lot. Of course not so long ago America had a State Department had an institutional memory that understood consequences but that, in todays world, is a very passe concept. In the meantime expect back tracking while the meaning of that old phrase 'bitten off more than you can chew' sinks in.

Saw this French take about what governments know :https://x.com/Elsa_Trujillo_/status/2082847935935455708

British politicians and clothes :https://edconway.substack.com/p/what-andy-burnhams-80-t-shirt-really

The secret to consultancy :https://www.siliconcontinent.com/p/what-do-consultants-get-paid-for

Scamming authors was something I'd only recentl heard about. Apparently it's a big thing - which may something about egos. This response was humorous :https://besskalb.substack.com/p/how-to-torment-a-scammer

A take on the Odyssey. I enjoyed the movie but didn't really clock it was supposed to be the Odyssey :https://emily613.substack.com/p/if-you-can-bear-to-hear-the-truth

A blog by the woman who recently wrote the good book on Weimar :https://www.katjahoyer.uk/p/poor-west-germany

Gilet weather.

In the village the partridge chicks are out for a walk with their mother. We follow along behind them in the car. The partridge chicks are slow walkers bit not as slow as the quail chicks. Guided by their mother they soon fly off with a flap of their wings into the safety of the wheat field.  Village life has a measured unhurried rhythm all of its own. It's sunny but decidedly chilly this morning. Gilet weather is here. The nippy air is a useful  reminder that it's the time of the year to have the boiler serviced. By the end of the month we'll be discussing turning on the heating. We wave at the farmers eldest lad who is heading off in his fathers Range Rover to check on the potato fields down by the shore. He's chosen to go across the field rather than round the edge.  In a months time he will be getting ready to head down to Edinburgh to pick up on his studies. His younger brother will be starting at Cambridge. In the interim they'll be busy helping with the harvest. 

On our way into town we detour to fill up with petrol. The dour woman at the garage cash desk informs me that the price per gallon is the highest it's been in nearly four years. It would seem that little 'problem' in the Gulf is finally having an impact. Her comment is surprising. I've paid £1.61 a litre which is what I I'd paid ( or at least thought I'd paid ) last week. This morning , unusually, there's been a short wait for a pump to become available. There's a queue of English visitors prudently filling up their tanks ahead of the long journey south down the motorway.

Serious golfers out on the Old Course. Each of them has their own caddie which is a pretty good sign of wanting to optimize their time on the sacred turf. In between holes each of the players check their phones for messages.

Down by the starters hut 'catch the moment' photos are being taken. There is some back slapping but not as much as we saw yesterday.

At the university end of town its quiet. In five weeks time it will be chaotic with youngsters setting out on a lifetimes journey.

For the moment we, and a young gull, have the place to ourselves. A couple of golfers wander by . One of them  turns to his pal and says " I wonder what this place is ? ". In this wee town golf and academia rub shoulders but are literally a world apart.

The picture at the top of the article is amazing ... in the literal sense of the word :https://www.popsci.com/environment/monkeys-have-pets-evolution/

How plants feel :https://bigthinkmedia.substack.com/p/how-ai-is-revealing-the-hidden-intelligence

Unknown relations :https://www.yahoo.com/news/science/articles/everyone-alive-may-carry-dna-180000619.html

90 years old and playing at St Andrews :https://x.com/garyplayer/status/2079560750696219065

A reflective 'if only' :https://miniphilosophy.substack.com/p/the-boy-i-wish-id-talked-to