Bubbly optimism.

A busy Sunday. The local farmers hard at work putting up decorations for the village  harvest celebration. Down beyond the potato barns the ladies of the village are delivering freshly baked cakes to the village hall kitchen. The weather again on its best behaviour.  Some cloud out at sea when we set off on our morning tour of the village but by mid-morning the sky is clear and the sun beating down in a 'continental' fashion. It's 24 degrees by mid-morning . 

In town Freshers week is underway. The last of the parents gone. Our usual walk past the lecture halls and down to the golf courses blocked by a throng of teenagers wearing their red gowns for the first time.

On a Sunday, after church , they follow an old tradition and walk to the end of the pier and back. There must be a couple of thousand milling around. Certainly far too many to squeeze into the chapel. I'm guessing that the religious part of this routine is overlooked amid the joy of getting to meet people .

For older students the semester starts in a weeks time. For the newcomers there's a week of getting to meet their tutors, learn the geography of the place and ( if the marquee going up is any indication ) party hard.

After Sunday lunch 'The Font' goes back to the wee house in town to hang a picture. The golf tournament is still underway ( After a slow start Team USA storm back to win )  and parking is a nightmare. It takes twenty minutes to find a space. A full three hours after the first brave souls set off the students at the back of the queue are  still heading towards the pier. Everyone exudes that combination of excitement and happiness that is the trademark bubbly optimism of the eighteen year old. This is a good time of the year to be here.

I'm not sure what the tourists make of all this. Perhaps it's seen as quaint and charming. 'The Font' thinks the uninitiated may think it's some sort of cult.

We find another Scottie down by the pier. Today we'll try to get pictures of the ones at the bus station and the town gate.

And another video showing how remarkable the weather has been :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtS_Zqo75h0

Pulling strings.

The ladies of the village are up and about early. A group of them are sitting, deep in conversation,  at the wooden picnic table outside the potato barns. We wave and shout out 'Good Morning'. The farmers wife  stands up and walks over to inform us that ' The BBC Radio is coming to the village hall at nine to interview us about the pea harvest. I hope we're up to the task '.  ' The Font' tells them that the BBC would have to go a long way to find anyone half as knowledgeable about pea growing. This improbable compliment seems to be what was needed. They all laugh and promise to give us their autographs.

The Walker Cup has rolled into town. A more patrician golfing tournament it would be hard to imagine. The grandfather of George Herbert Walker Bush organized the 'amateur' tournament in the 1920's and it's been going strong ever since. You know its patrician because town is suddenly full of American men in blazers and chinos and women wearing a single row of pearls. Think of Kennebunkport on July 4th and you're halfway there. On the spot of five o'clock a Royal Air Force jet fighter comes hurtling over the 1st tee at three hundred feet  and then pulls up and shoots vertically into the air. To get a Eurofighter to open your golf competition signals that strings have been pulled. To get a Eurofighter to fly that low over St Andrews with its afterburners on  signals that the strings that  were pulled were  very important ones indeed. Tourists stand and gawp. I see a middle age couple frozen  half way across the street with their mouths wide open as they watch the  fighter thunder its way skyward. Parents delivering their offspring for Freshers Week are left to ponder what sort of place their little darlings have come to.

Thank you to Kim at Golden Pines for reminding us that 'Scotties by the Sea' has started. https://scottiesbythesea.com/

We pause to admire the one outside the old library and then , a little later, watch as a man whips off an orange cover to reveal the 'Battle of Bannockburn' design that's in pride of place  outside the Pizza restaurant. The man with the orange blanket informs us that there are 19 artist decorated Scotties around town. They will be auctioned off for the childrens cancer hospice in a month or so.

I'm not so sure about the design on the Scottie outside the picture house....

.... but the one down by the beach has a certain sea meets the sand elegance. 

Our task for the coming week will be to track down the others.

So starts a Saturday morning in a town teeming with super polite  golfers and wide eyed 18 year olds writing a new chapter in their lives. The sun shines down on both.