Twas ever thus.

The weather is being well behaved. It pours at night but is bright and sunny in the morning. Today is particularly lovely with clouds on the far side of the bay and skies of the purest cerulean blue above us. The radio informs us that some airbase in England ( I forget which one but think it might have been Coningsby ) has had its first rainfall in 62 days.

This perfect beach weather  is not what the village youngsters want to see as they head off  to school for the first day of term. The sunshine makes the indignity of getting the eight am school bus all the worse. They have an unhappy 'Weather like this should be outlawed' look on their faces.  Twas ever thus.

In the field down by the old bronze age graves a remarkable looking plant.

This morning we go to a bakers in the village along the coast for a baguette. Someone has told us they're the best outside Edinburgh or Glasgow. We're too early. The woman behind the counter shrugs her shoulders and says ' The delivery mans running a wee bit late '. She then goes on to tell us it's his twin girls first day at primary school. He's dropping them off at the front gate before he starts the days deliveries. For us it's a day when nothing happens. For him ( and the girls ) it's a day to remember.

It's the prefect morning to stop and have a coffee at a cafe overlooking the harbour. The coffee is good which is unusual in a part of the world where the gold standard is Starbucks.  The boat that takes visitors out to the Isle of May to view the puffins is full. In fact every seat is taken. The boat trip has been discovered by 'influencers' and to the delight of the crew has become mega popular. Todays passengers are a mix of English, Spanish, Italian and American in equal measure. Just wait until they get out of the harbour and discover the sea breezes. Then they'll really understand what cold weather tourism is all about.

The faces are v. French :https://www.youtube.com/shorts/1q3g6iFluvM

'Hipster' fine dining in SF is now $600 per person :https://www.noahpinion.blog/p/where-to-eat-in-san-francisco

Another of those things I'd never heard about - acoustic ecology :https://aeon.co/essays/worm-munch-matters-the-new-acoustic-ecology-of-the-soil

Are we all sounding the same ? :https://eriksinger.substack.com/p/are-media-and-the-internet-homogenizing

Point #4 says it all :https://hai.stanford.edu/ai-index/2026-ai-index-report

Eristic.

The BBC certainly isn't dumbing down. This morning I learn a new word - Eristic. It describes those who think they're right even when they're demonstrably wrong. It's used in a news segment covering Oman and South Korea. The word 'incoherent' is also used. Natalie Harp is mentioned as is Rodney Cook. This is the first time I've ever heard anything about either of them.

A professor in the village has taken his 18 year old son off to a world famous Italian lake hotel on a long weekend golfing trip. One of those father-son bonding experiences before the youngster heads off to university. It was a disaster. The hotel was full of 'strange' people who sat around the pool taking selfies , at night  most of the couples in the dining room wouldn't talk to each other but would have long conversations on their mobile phones with the volume turned up. If that wasn't bad enough the grass on the golf course was burnt to a crisp and the air conditioning - like the power supply - worked fitfully. The food was a foreigners idea of what Italian food should be at prices that no Italian would pay. A good time was not had by all. He wonders if Mediterranean summers are just getting too hot. To make matters worse the new European digital immigration system was a nightmare. Three and a half hours queueing for entry in the heat of Milan airport was memorable but not in a good way.

The local farmers all leave a wide strip of unploughed wilderness at the field edges. The butterflies and bees make good use if it. So too do scores of young starlings who are learning to fly.  Anyone coming down the farm track has to slow their car down to the pace of a flying starling with 'L' plates. There are many more starlings than usual this morning which may signal that the local sparrow hawk has moved onto pastures new.

Peggy , the Dandy with a summer buzz cut, emits a loud howl as she sees us heading towards her on the golf course path. Peggy also greets every passing jogger in this way. Her two elder sisters walk along behind in silence. 

The TESCO supermarket has been closed for six weeks. It was due to open today but some of the new chiller display units have been delayed at customs. The new date for opening is September 6th just in time for the arrival of the incoming freshers. 

Yesterdays observation by our lawyer that there's been a huge increase in young American professional families wanting to come and live here is borne out by the 'Donnie Scotland' headline in a local paper. 

Back in the village the last of the hay is being bailed and hauled off for storage. Autumn is drawing close.

Social media bans :https://knowablemagazine.org/content/article/society/2026/studying-the-social-media-ban-under-sixteens-australia

Meat allergy:https://www.sciencenorway.no/allergy-arachnids-food/meat-allergy-is-becoming-more-common-ticks-are-being-blamed/2697910

Nothing new under the sun:https://theconversation.com/how-a-19th-century-estate-agent-offered-3d-property-walkthroughs-before-the-dawn-of-the-photography-age-289732

Late summer light.

There comes a time in the late summer when the shadows lengthen and the light around here becomes sharper and more intense. This must be  something to do with shifts in the atmosphere as cold dry arctic air starts to slowly drift down towards us. We're now into that time of year . The change in the light can make even the humdrum look electric. Today the northern sunrise is making the dull dry grass that lines the field boundaries glow like an art installation . 

This change in the light will probably go unnoticed by the village youngsters who are getting ready for the new school term. The funereal looks on their faces tells us the summer holidays have gone by in a flash. The teenagers kick off their new term on Wednesday morning.

Outside the golf club we meet our Edinburgh solicitor. I say he's our solicitor but the firm of lawyers we've used forever has been taken over and amalgamated into a large international 'practice' as their Scottish outpost. As a consequence he's become rather too grand for us. The takeover supposedly enables us to access a 'wider variety of services' but our needs tend to be rather prosaic and corporate restructurings and access to an international network of offices across Asia and the Gulf aren't high on our list of priorities. 

He tells us that the number of Americans wanting to come and live in Scotland has doubled in the last year. Obtaining residency permits is keeping him very busy and, from the looks of his large Mercedes SUV, well remunerated. I think he said nearly 10,000 American families had already applied for Scottish residency this year but it could have been 20,000. We will doubtless bump into him again and when we do I'll ask what the numbers are. He also says that cold weather tourism is indeed a thing. His Edinburgh client base of hotels have never been busier. Tourists that used to go to London for a week are now heading north for some of the time. Volumes are up 15% over last year which is, seemingly, unheard of. 2027 is shaping up to see similar growth with early bookings from Spain and Italy surging.

The cheeky coasters showing a Scotsman displaying his backside have all sold. The souvenir shop has replaced them in its window with tins of shortbread. Westies and Highland Cows are big signifiers of Scotland alongside Loch Ness monsters and stern men in bearskins playing bagpipes.

We are taking a course on AI. Or, to be more precise,'The Font' thinks we need to keep abreast of changes in technology and has signed up to one of those university courses that are designed to keep the towns retired folk engaged . Take enough courses and we could be awarded an M. Litt.

I go to pick up some books that are set texts. The young lady at the bookstore says ' They'll make for interesting reading '. I have yet to be convinced so say nothing.

The course textbook ( I never thought I'd ever have to utter those awful words again ) is a large volume that has the dimensions and weight to turn it into an offensive weapon. It is, I see, already on its fourth edition. We shall attend our first lecture this week. I'll wager the average age will be 65.

Haggis is banned in the US. A summary of things you can't buy in  America :https://notnottalmud.substack.com/p/things-you-cant-buy-in-the-usa-and

Dither until you starve :https://sketchplanations.substack.com/p/buridans-ass

An intriguing insight into Chinese medicine :https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-02448-x

52C during the day, 39C at night. Not even being on an aircraft carrier can keep you cool in temperatures like this :https://x.com/extremetemps/status/2088954923681542571

Schools go back this week.

I'm in the back garden dead heading the climbing roses when I hear the geese. At first I think they're going to fly along the coast but the sound draws closer as they dog leg over the rock stack before heading right over the house. They're low. In fact they're so low I can see their eyes. I'd always assumed goose honks were identical but each one has its own pitch and timbre. As they pass I can feel the air pressure change from the flapping of their wings. This is as primeval a sensation as you can get.

The wheat is harvested and bailed. The farmer and youngest son have now made a start on cutting the potato stems down to ground level. Tomorrow, with the stalks removed, they'll make a start on digging up the potatoes. Daughter is still in Jackson Hole with the tall American boy but is due back mid-week to start law school. The boys family own a ski resort. This to the famers Presbyterian ears sounds vaguely disreputable and on a par with owning an opium den. " What sort of business is that ?"  I'd hazard a guess that he'd find any suitors to be questionable but keep this thought to myself. He is however in a good mood. The price for the farmers wheat and potatoes are the best he's ever got and more than justify the cost of the new combine harvester. Crop yields down south have been hit by the arid conditions and prices for Scottish produce has risen sharply.

11C this morning. A high of 18C forecast for this afternoon. Heavy rain is expected in time for dinner. The London news broadcast tells us the national emergency service sent out a text warning everyone in Britain of the danger of wild fires. This is a very London centric view. Everyone in England and Wales got the emergency alert. In a wet and rainy Scotland we didn't.

A young gull wanders along the cobbles looking for food. It stops and peers plaintively at us in the hope we've brought it breakfast.

The town hotels are full of southerner families enjoying the last two weeks of the English school holidays. Here in Scotland the schools go back tomorrow . If your looking for signs that the year is racing on look no further.

Impressions of a Chinese tourist in Washington :https://themandarinfrontier.substack.com/p/three-visions-of-beijing-epliogue

Dining in Florence : https://emikodavies.substack.com/p/is-overtourism-killing-florences

Painting in Sardinia :https://corkscrewnomad.substack.com/p/watercolor-trip-through-sardinia

Lobster fishermen and a remarkable howl.

Here in the UK a Cambridge Professor, who 'amplified' his CV, has taken his life. There's something rather tragic and unedifying in the public hounding of a deeply troubled figure. It's a sad story where entitlement and racism mix and neither the university nor the media who hounded him come out of it looking good. The BBC breakfast bulletin informs us that there is confusion over claims that Washington wants to annex the Strait of Hormuz and have it become 'American territory'. Is this official policy or just a passing thought ? No one seems to know. Amidst the confusion I shall continue to take the little BMW down to the garage to have its petrol tank filled once a fortnight.

A beautiful calm morning. From the courtyard we can see a small fleet of lobster boats fishing thirty metres offshore where the sea plummets down into the cold, deep volcanic depths. This is where the best lobsters are found but the poor fishermen are forever snagging and losing their creel on the razor sharp rocks. These then wash up on the small beach where the local dogs find their scents intriguing.

Further along the coast towards town this mornings tide is the lowest we've ever seen . Holiday makers will have to walk across a good half mile of sand to reach the water.

By the golf course we meet what we think are three Dandy Dinmonts. Two of them are getting on in years and process slowly and silently. The third, leading from the front , is a younger dog called Peggy. She is far from quiet and every so often emits a fiercesome howl not unlike the Hound of the Baskervilles. It is a quite memorable sound for such a small ( and in Peggys case friendly ) dog. 

The bakers summer strawberry extravaganza seems to be rather less extravagant than it was.

In a neighbouring village  a rather fine Victorian pillar box. There can't be many of these old ones left. In fact there can't be many post boxes left at all. Letter delivery in the village seems to be down to three times a week as part of the latest cost cutting measures. How long before we're down to twice a week ?  The Postman has largely been replaced by couriers . There must be half a dozen courier companies who wend their way into the village every day.

A small clump of harebells happily blooming on the verge down by the village notice board. This must be a sheltered spot as all the others wild flowers down here have been decimated by the leaf stripping wind that blows up from the bay and is channeled along the lane.

Bikes starting to reappear. A few, very few, students are starting to return and get their apartments ready for the new semester which kicks off in three weeks.

An unusual Saturday morning musical choice on local radio :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkYcKfqFNmM

Animal welfare is seemingly better in richer countries :https://www.worksinprogress.news/p/will-factory-farming-fix-itself

The modern man :https://www.theargumentmag.com/p/men-also-want-it-all

Climate change :https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/environment/how-do-you-squeeze-climate-change-inside-human-brain

The world fertility rate is falling :https://www.sas.upenn.edu/~jesusfv/Demographics.pdf

" I write poetry too ".

The first flock of geese are spotted heading south down the coast towards Northumberland. They honk loudly as they go. A group of them break away and land on the recently harvested wheat fields and are soon busily gleaning the fallen ears of grain. The swallows that we thought might have headed home, haven't. They are busy doing miraculous feats of airmanship in the barns by the cows field.

The farmers wife has been invisible for the last few days. Babies have been born in the village ( two so far this month and a third on the way ) and well honed neighbourly routines have sprouted like wild flowers after rain. Advice is given, visiting parents entertained, dinners cooked ,shopping bought and elder siblings given lunch and sleep overs. News of the newborns progress is passed on by word of mouth and greeted with delight. In a small farming village there is an entrenched feeling that the arrival of new lives pressages continuity. It was exactly the same in the French village. All is well with the world...or at least this small part of it.

With the fun fair gone the shopping street is once again looking recognizable.

The newly restored fountain has sustained some damage to its concrete balustrade. It could have been worse.

For dinner we go to the new restaurant that's opened up where the old Brewdogs pub used to be. In the space of five weeks its been transformed from somewhere tired and dingy into a bright and modern restaurant. We've delayed going to allow time enough for any teething troubles to subside and for the chef to settle in. There is a queue at the front door which augers well. The food proves to be good, the service efficient and the cost reasonable. It was fun and we shall go again. All of the nights co-diners were fellow townies which I think is a good sign. The owner takes the time to come over for a wee blether with each table. This is good PR . Happy locals are the ones who are likely to turn out  for dinner in February.  At the moment the chef is managing three seatings a night. 

Afterwards we pop into the pub facing the divinity school for a night cap. A local mutt decides Angus is a dog person and is keen for a chat and a tickle.  The place is full of tables of hearty young men in shirts and ties with a few tables of golfers and English tourists interspersed among them. There's a summer rugby school on at the university and scrum halves from all over the country are here to hone their kicking skills. Rugby being a conservative game they've dressed for dinner. Some are wearing jackets that they've grown into and are in the process of growing out of. Others wear 'interview' suits. Haircuts are uniformly short and practical. They eschew wine for the volumetric cost effectiveness of beer . When one of them becomes too boisterous the others silence him with a loud shhh followed by silence and embarrassed laughter. Who'd have thought that 20 year olds have ties - let alone wear them? There are some quietly conservative things about life in Britain that surprise even the British. One young man tells the attractive American student working behind the bar that " I don't only play rugby. I write poetry too ". How's that as a line to break the ice ? Her heart seems unmoved by this  revelation of his inner muse. The group finally finish their beers leaving the rest of us to marvel at their boisterous civility and good naturedness.

Practical advice for dictators :https://fridainsight.substack.com/p/how-to-become-president-for-life

English ideas for hot weather eating:https://theyorkshiregourmet.substack.com/p/appetite-in-the-age-of-heat-addled

Men and women respond differently to drugs :https://www.the-scientist.com/female-brains-wake-up-from-anesthesia-differently-than-male-brains-74843

It was quite literally a different world. The hit song from this day in August 1939 :https://youtu.be/U1NeqzYqgEU?t=98

No eclipse for us.

The first of the bramble pickers are hard at work along the hedgerows. It's a young couple who live in one of the small cottages by the stream. He does the picking while she holds a large oblong Tupperware container into which the brambles are dropped. They seem to be immersed in what they're doing but manage to look up and give us a cheerful ' Good Morning '. We leave them to it. They're out early because it's going to be hot today. 28C expected, which for Scotland is unusual.

Nine curlews fly over us heading south. Eight of them in formation together, the ninth trailing along behind cheeping noisily as it tries to catch up. The birds used to be a common sight but there are fewer every year. Their nesting grounds, to which exact spot they return year after year, are slowly but surely disappearing under the towns ever growing trailer parks. Interestingly, after a recent burst of expansion 20% of all of Scotlands static caravans can be found in a ten minute drive around the town. At what point does the beauty that attracts people get swamped ?

The strawberries are at their peak. The Bulgarian lady who stacks the shelves and takes the money tells me they hope to get another six or seven weeks crop before they shut up shop for the year.

The minutes of the recent community council meeting have appeared on the village notice board . They indicate that life in these golf mad parts has its own dangers.

Last night we went into town to watch the eclipse. It goes without saying that it turned out to be cloudy. Around six thirty a large group of Italian school children appeared on the high ground by the bandstand. It would have been a great place to see events unfold but they soon get bored and head off down to the beach to feed pizza to the seagulls. Italian school children have learnt how to project a world weary aura of ennui. In this regard no other nationality can match them....or come close.

On the golf course the foursomes continued to tee off oblivious to the eclipse and what might .... or in this case might not ... be happening in the heavens above them.

Gershwin for a hot sunny morning :https://youtu.be/xDneycZwUww?t=30

Medicine:https://www.worksinprogress.news/p/future-of-medicine

The rise of the American tourist :https://x.com/arpitrage/status/2086828588058235334?s=46&t=fSypFxt84bBHId-do9r5Ag

Long forgotten memories.

We have the central heating  boiler serviced. It may seem unusual to have this done in August but it means when winter arrives we won't have to worry about anything going wrong. The man arrives at six thirty in the evening and goes an hour later. " All's fine Pal" he says breezily before adding " You needed a new timer ". With that he's off.  I also arrange to have the heating oil topped up to the brim. Who knows what will happen to the price as we head into the first frosts of autumn ?

Wednesday morning . At quarter to six the sound of heavy machinery tells us the farmer has started bringing in the wheat. From the bedroom window a cloud of chaff can be seen slowly but surely heading towards the back garden of the house. Like mad things we rush around closing all the windows.

Red Admirals much in evidence on the flowers today. They seem to be having a good year but nothing like the Cabbage Whites which flutter around in swarms. The lavender bed isn't so much covered in bees as alive with them. In our four summers here this is the best year, by far, for bees. There is something rather reassuring about that.

The night of the lunar eclipse. The Scottish weather remains mercurial so we may, or may not, see it. After a bright start to the day cloud and rain are forecast for the evening. There's probably a 50% chance we'll have some gaps in the clouds. An e-mail from the power company drops into the inbox this morning asking us to be prudent in our use of electricity during the eclipse. The loss of solar power may 'stress the grid '.

The fun fair has ended and this morning the whole caboodle is being packed up. The huge tower that winches youthful customers to the top and then releases them into a stomach churning free fall has been very popular. 

This music is playing from the loud speakers as the last of the rides are disassembled :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZANKFxrcKU . I haven't heard this since the age of 2 or 3. My father used to sing it to me as we drove around the island in the family Humber Super Snipe.  I always thought there was something ever so slightly sinister about the song ( the furtiveness of the Teddy Bears aroused suspicion )  although it may also have had something to do with my fathers singing style. It is an interesting insight into how auditory inputs  can trigger long forgotten but clarion clear memories.

I cannot imagine any dog being trained to sit through an MRI scan :https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1137798

The kids at the second ( and final ) summer school session are heading home. They only seem to have just arrived. At the 2:21 mark there's a cameo appearance of the owners sheepdog that keeps a watchful eye on the youngsters from its position by the summer schools front door. It is the best behaved dog we've ever seen :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBda0sfwPR4

Thoughts on architecture :https://www.bensouthwood.co.uk/p/eight-architecture-myths-busted-by

You could not make this up ! Harry Potter fans triumphant :https://www.nme.com/news/film/harry-potter-fans-succeed-moving-construction-project-avoid-dobby-grave-3961714

The beach procession.

Another beautiful, but chill, start to the day here in Scotland. It might get to 18C this afternoon. By contrast London is expecting their fifth heat wave of the year with a high of 35C. 

Last night a huge cruise liner drifted by the end of the garden. It's the closest inshore we've ever seen one. A little later another ship, almost as big, joins it going in the same direction. We stand at the garden wall with a glass of Margaux and watch them drift towards the wind farms and the horizon. If you'd told me ten years ago that cruising round Scotland would go mainstream I would have laughed aloud and thought you quite mad. Until three or four years ago the only folks cruising these waters were hardy bird watchers looking for puffins on the offshore rock stacks. Nowadays the tell tale signs of climate change and cool weather tourism are slowly but surely mounting up.

Sometimes the sheep warily watch us walk by. This morning they completely ignore us. I'd like to think this is because they recognize that we don't mean them any harm but it's more probably down to the fact that by sheep standards life in a grassy field by the sea is as good as it gets so why bother moving ?

We watch as a group of cheerful middle aged men dressed in white hotel dressing gowns process slowly across the fairways towards the beach. The caddies think they might be some fringe religious group but it turns out they're American golfers who thought it would be 'fun' to start their day with a dip in the sea. What seemed a brilliant idea after last nights dinner proves to be less so when they have to stick their toes in the water. It's called the North Sea for a reason. 

The braver of them get their knees wet. The less brave ( the majority ) don't even get that far. Soon they're heading bare foot back across the sand. The flimsy hotel slippers they set off in aren't up to the journey and are reluctantly discarded in the rubbish bins by the beach cafe. Bizarrely, this is the sort of scene ( hotel flip flops excepted )  you might have seen here half a millennium ago when pilgrims would wash off the dirt from their journey in the sea before going off to visit the shrine of St Andrew in the cathedral. Plus ca change. We and the local dog owners watch them in amazement.

The fun fair trucks have parked perilously close to the restored fountain. The staff will start dismantling the rides tomorrow in readiness for their journey back to Glasgow. Let's hope the fountain remains unscathed.

I'd expect to see houses with designs like this in London, not Kenya :https://unityhomes.co.ke/silver-hill/

Vegetables :https://www.sciencealert.com/the-worlds-vegetables-are-vanishing-and-its-quietly-wrecking-our-diets

A challenge for psychologists :https://www.sciencealert.com/what-if-the-brain-doesnt-create-consciousness-scientist-proposes-it-might-be-the-fabric-of-reality-itself

Coming to a surgery near you:https://reason.com/2026/08/09/ai-beats-doctors/

Cheeky souvenirs

11C when I get up. A high of 19 forecast . Over breakfast we discuss turning on the heating but agree to postpone doing anything until September. Turning it on in August just doesn't seem right.  In England, the BBC radio bulletin informs us, 25 million people are facing a hosepipe ban. 

A rum collection of stories make up the rest of the BBC's morning news . Gianni Infantino, the man that organizes the World Cup, has issued a statement claiming allegations made against him in the weekend papers were defamatory. These allegations, as so often seems to be the case, have something to do with a secretary, misuse of funds and a hastily covered up affair. I'd have thought that was the sort of legal challenge that was a red rag to the media bull . Being quiet and letting boredom set in might have been a better strategy ? 

This is followed by a story about Italy and Spain continuing to argue over the surge of Moroccan immigrants into Ceuta.The radio says it has become a diplomatic crisis. Until last week I'd bet not one in a thousand folk could find Ceuta on a map. This week it's probably closer to one in five hundred. The final story is about Iranian demands for the US to withdraw from the Gulf and pay reparations for the damage done in the last six months fighting. This intransigent approach, the news reader rather frostily observes, makes walking away from the impasse rather difficult for the US administration. A recently fired retired US Navy admiral is interviewed. He's remarkably eloquent and uses the phrase 'petulant desperation' . The admiral speaks a lot of sense but loses his British audience when he starts going on about some candidate in Michigan and the impact of the war on the mid-terms. This is too much detail for a foreign pre-breakfast radio audience on a Monday morning.

Town looks like Carthage after it had been sacked by the Romans. The fun fair runs until Wednesday.

The souvenir shops have a new 'cheeky' line of product designed to appeal to the influx of fun seeking tourists. What home worthy of its name is complete without a coaster or mug adorned with a Scottish backside ? 

The hydrangeas outside the Classics department are in full flower. The university gardeners have put in place a Mediterranean planting scheme to conserve water and make maintenance easier.  Looking at the hydrangeas through the light sea mist I think someone must have a sense of humour.

These old Stalinist skyscrapers in Moscow are home to lots of retired military so he is a brave man to venture into such confrontational surroundings :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IiMdbuFreyg

Had never thought of this :https://www.asiasentinel.com/p/ai-coming-revolutionary-effect-third-world-healthcare

Irish and Scottish are becoming more English ( in pronunciation at least ) :https://eriksinger.substack.com/p/accent-tip-3-irish-and-scottish-nurse

We used to have a flat next to the castle in Edinburgh. During Tattoo time this was the sound that echoed around at night. It was literally impossible to sleep :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhKmoKrZOjA

Copenhagen, but I thought it was Rekjavik :https://www.commonreader.co.uk/p/modernist-gothic-in-copenhagen

On the sand.

A decidedly 'fresh' start to the day . We're surprised to find that a young English mother has spread out a blanket at the edge of the dunes. She has a small pile of books and a picnic hamper to keep her, and her excited twin boys, fed and entertained. It's the twins first time away from home and they've woken early. She's of the opinion that getting them out out of their Airbnb and onto the beach will have them completely exhausted by lunch time. Then everyone can have a nap. GLWT !  'He's still snoring' she says  to us. 'He', in this instance, presumably being her husband. One two year old wanders around on the sand relishing the freedom while remaining at all time in her sightline. The other sits on the blanket and has a story read to him. Such different characters. Each and every local dog ( and owner )  is greeted by the twins with the sort of hand clapping enthusiasm that God only grants to two year olds.

A week or so ago there were swallows darting low over the fields. Now they seem to have gone. Can it be they've upped and offed so quickly ? I thought they usually migrated at the end of August. The departure of the Swallows is that first visible sign that autumn is drifting towards these northerly reaches. Down south  the radio is still going on about heatwaves.

The farmers cabbages are swelling by the day. In places the daisies peak through. I've yet to see any berry pickers but it can't be long before the village pie  makers are out scouring the verges for fillings. This years bramble harvest  looks set to be a bumper one.

The farm on the main road has already harvested its wheat. The straw neatly bound and ready to be stored in the barn. Here the local farmer has yet to spring into action so for the time being we live surrounded by a sea of waving gold. Youngest son stops to tell us he's opened his student bank account. This allows him an overdraft of £1500 and (oddly) a £10 a month meal coupon exchangeable at ZiZis and Pizza Hut. The boy seems to be taking his imminent departure to Cambridge with stoic calm. This may not last the closer we get to September and the start of his first semester.  We guess his mother is less stoical.

An American woman discovers France :https://kimberlyannwheeler.substack.com/p/the-french-behaviors-i-thought-were

Helping others : https://www.piratewires.com/p/the-bezos-list-the-top-20-founders

Earthquake hits the operating theatre :https://x.com/nhk_news/status/2085320462637334778

Surviving :https://www.persuasion.community/p/a-missile-has-hit-your-apartment

Tragedy or malice ? :https://www.theoldmoneyluxury.com/p/the-untold-stories-of-ethel-and-robert