Record library attendance ?

The worst of the storm has passed us by but it's still windy and two of the large offshore support vessels remain moored in the bay. The local gull population has also opted for prudence and can be seen bobbing up and down close to the shore in front of the old lifeboat station.

The farmer says he's seen a school of eight whales where the offshore rock shoals plunge down into the sea. We stop and peer out towards the horizon but there's no sign of them. On a day of strong winds like this the sea breaking over the rocks is whipped up into dervish like pillars of spray. In the sun these refract the light like so many small dancing rainbows. The people who settled here three thousand years ago and had a small cemetery on the bluff knew how to choose a good spot.

The students are strangely absent. The university 'ap' shows that there are nearly 1800 of them in the library. That must be some sort of record.

The recognition that they're not here simply to make new friends and party seems to have hit home. The sudden understanding that exams are now less than six weeks away does wonders in concentrating the mind.

In the centre of town the roads are being dug up and new gas pipes laid. We wander by the wee house to make sure none of the slates on the roof have blown off in the gales. They haven't. A man on the radio informs us that 80 mph storms are likely to be much more commonplace as global warming accelerates. He also says Scotland will get wetter. I'd have thought that was physically impossible. 

Another of those things I'd never thought about :https://knowablemagazine.org/content/article/living-world/2026/why-animal-blood-comes-in-different-colors

The story behind Eisenhowers broken globe :https://danieldrezner.substack.com/p/american-foreign-policy-horror-story

The good thing about a university town is being able to pass on your recent reading matter to the library. Every two months or so I send them a photo of the thirty or so books we've read and don't have room for on our book shelves. The librarians e-mail me back to say what they want and I then drop the books off , half a dozen at a time, with the cheerful folk at the front desk of the library. Todays drop offs are all worth reading but 'From Sovereigns to Servants ' is a truly outstanding insight into modern Russia by a brilliant young woman who used to work at the Central Bank in Moscow. Focused and brilliant. The other books being dropped off today are merely 'excellent' in comparison although the two 'plus ca change 'books on Germany are stand outs in their own sphere. Tomorrow I'll drop off another six volumes which will help clear out the study.