Deserted

 

The retired farmer wanders by to give us his opinion on our recent garden makeover. We've had rowans planted. He approves both of the rowans and the fact they've been well staked up. They've come from a local nursery so ' They'll nae have any problem wi' the wind '. The old fellows got problems with  his lungs. He's had a wheeze that he can't shake off  and is going for a scan at the large hospital in Dundee. His daughter caught Covid in Italy at the start of the outbreak in early 2020. That early form of the pandemic was - in his view -  more potent than any of the variants that followed.  He joins us as we walk down to the shore. Seems that what we thought was an old cow byre is in fact the remains of a life boat station built after a ship ran aground on the rocks in the 1850's with the loss of all on board. 

A burst of cherry blossom adding a touch of colour to one of one of the old buildings down by the cathedral. How many golfers come to town and leave again without discovering there's more to the place than the Old Course ? This morning we seem to have the place to ourselves. I stop for a wee chat with the man who sleeps in the optometrists shop doorway. He's an old soldier who spends much of his day deep in animated conversation with himself.  This morning he seems cheerful enough and tells me he's just fine. He heads off to Greggs  for a coffee and a bacon roll. 

A quick detour into chapel. There's usually one of the organ scholars busy rehearsing for a concert or the Sunday service.

We warm up and enjoy the music. For a moment or two the altar is dappled with the sun streaming through the stained glass windows.

On our way home we pass a group of youngsters wheeling one of the carriages from the procession back to the barn where it will remain safely in storage until next year. The days are getting longer now . Much longer. Soon we'll be at the time of year when there's never ending light.

Things medieval men thought women shouldn't know :https://www.zmescience.com/science/news-science/voynich-manuscript-gynecology/

A (knowledgeable and sensible ) guy at the Salk Institute on Avian flu :https://erictopol.substack.com/p/a-bird-flu-h5n1-status-report

Lifes attributes,

 

A beautiful morning. Blue skies have got the students out. The grass on the Quad already filling up with early risers sipping their pre-exam Americanos. The grass is roped off in a half hearted attempt to keep people off it. GLWT !

Give it an hour or two and the pavement bars will be overflowing with youngsters either celebrating the end of exams or doing their best to forget what lies ahead. When you're nineteen there's a lot of lessons to be learnt about mastering the balance between confidence and self doubt. Those that choose not to be politicians will manage just fine.

A very large seagull eyes the al fresco breakfast crowd at the bar near the kirk. The gulls are in nest building mode. Give it a month and the sound of hungry chicks will be interrupting the town folks sleep patterns. Another four months and it will be two full years since we left France. Perhaps the biggest lesson in life the students have yet to understand is that time speeds by the older you get.

Angus buys some grouting. He's surprised to find a 330g tube costs £8.99. How can something so mundane be so expensive ?  This thought reminds me that my transition into my father is now complete. 

Outside the hardware store a variety of plastic animals ( hedgehogs, puppies and rabbits ) have been set out on a garden bench. They mutely seem to be enjoying the sun. An array of bright pink and purple buckets make a startling street art installation.

A variety of motorized wheelchairs attract the attention of the coffee drinkers at the cafe on the beach.

So begins an almost summery day in a small town where a lot is happening very quietly.

The door is open in chapel and the choir are singing these words by Dylan Thomas. I'd not heard the piece before. It is apparently from Under Milk Wood  and manages to be both charming and humorous :https://youtu.be/49znUV3fSCM

Culture clash :https://restofworld.org/2024/tsmc-arizona-expansion/

Our egg timer has never had this problem :https://www.sciencealert.com/physicists-can-finally-explain-how-sand-in-an-hourglass-can-suddenly-stop-flowing

Oh dear. Not what chocolate lovers want to hear  :https://www.uta.edu/news/world-chocolate-supply-threatened-by-devastating-virus

Buying coffee as theatre

Now exams are underway the rain has stopped and the weather is on the bright and sunny side. The temperatures are forecast to get into double digits today and may reach 13 degrees on Friday.

Down on the beach someone has built a 'fort' out of stones and old tree trunks. It must have taken hours to collect the stones, build the walls and balance the beams. I shall ask the farmers wife who was responsible although our betting is that the 'New Age' couple from Hampshire with their three children are behind it. They're renting a cottage in the village while she does a post grad degree. He spends a lot of time on the beach with the children. 

'Puppy' finds us. She forgives us for the fact that we set off on our walk without her.

In town we see the first storage van collecting students belongings. What a brilliant business idea - buy a warehouse, get students to pack their belongings in cardboard boxes, collect them, store them and charge a fortune for doing so. Do the same in reverse come September. 

Some lucky souls have finished their exams and are heading home. May, June, July, August and half of September aren't bad as a summer vacation. Italian tourists have started to arrive. They're dressed as if going to the Arctic. They sport the European hats, boots, scarves and padded jackets look.  Eight of them are standing outside the coffee shop discussing their order. They're doing this in what can best be described as a 'animated' manner. No sooner has the order been placed - six espressos and two Americanos -  than one of them decides she wants a cup of tea. This change causes the others to gesticulate and embark on a fresh bout of arm waving. When her drink does arrive it has a tea bag in it. We watch in silent amazement as she attempts to scoop it out - first with her fingers, then with a pen and finally with her sunglasses - and then find somewhere to put it. New levels of theatricality arise when it's discovered the tea bag is hot. 

Two American girls in trouser suits at a neighbouring table discuss their summer plans. One of them is unsure whether or not it's a good idea to invite 'Humphrey' to their lake house. 'Humphrey' is her English boyfriend and she's not entirely sure her father is ready to meet him - or indeed any - boyfriend. The mothers likely reaction is not discussed so is presumably a non-issue.  'Humphrey', we agree,  is the sort of old fashioned male name that you're more likely find in a town like this. 

The benches on the shopping street already occupied by local pensioners enjoying the twin miracle of warmth and sunshine.

So starts a quiet Wednesday morning in a small town coming alive as summer nears.

Labrador humour :https://twitter.com/kwoade/status/1782328162602389695

The moon :https://www.sciencealert.com/this-crater-could-be-where-earths-second-moon-broke-off-the-first-one

It's all in the mind:https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2024/04/old-age-onset-perceptions

An exhibition worth visiting :https://www.themorgan.org/exhibitions/walton-ford

Enforced jolliness.

The local farmers are up early. By the time we set foot out of the front door there are four tractors working away in  the fields down by the sea. With their red wheel rims and blue metal work they look quite jolly. The six month wet spell seems , finally, to be ending with the sodden ground finally being dried out by the wind. The football pitch sized lake outside 'The Fonts' cabin has all but disappeared.  All of the local farmers seed potatoes used to go to Ireland but thanks to Brexit the Irish can no longer source them from outside the EU. Now the local potatoes all go to the big processing plant in Dundee where they're turned into crisps. The Irish consume 94 kilos of potatoes per head but this year, in the absence of Scottish imports,  they may face a potato shortage. Brexit is the idiocy that keeps on giving.

A long chat with the super smart Los Angelinos. It's 9 pm LA time which is late for them and at 5 am early for me. We talk about Ukraine, Marjorie Taylor Green ( remarkable - perhaps the  politest - word to describe her )  and Trumps court case. One of the Los Angelinos says the ex-Presidents New York  lawyer is very, very good.  The LA folk also tell me  that China is stockpiling everything it can get its hands on - copper, oil and iron ore. This is the behaviour of a country that is about to do something big - they take the view that they're planning a major devaluation. Those Chinese EV's are going to get even cheaper.

Into town for a walk on the beach. Through a doorway we can see the library and its garden - the place already busy with students. I'll wager that most of them have never been up this early in their lives.  There's been no news about yesterdays visit by the Coastguard helicopter so it must have been an exercise.  

Further down the road spear tips are jutting over the wall. 

Who remembers Rupert the Bear ? A Daily Express Annual in a charity shop window for the princely sum of £4. Must be sixty years since I last picked up one of these books. What a simpler world it was then. Todays children would likely find the little Bears amusing 'japes' to be exceedingly dull. 

'The Font' is greatly taken with Booja Booja vegan chocolates. We stop off to buy a couple of boxes.  They're made in the UK so the man in the chocolate shop is sure of a steady supply. By contrast imported chocolate is subject to all sorts of customs delays which he says make his life 'complicated'. He's just taken delivery of a delayed consignment of Lindt Easter bunnies that he's going to have to ship back to the wholesaler. 

Baldwin the magical dog will be appearing at the theatre for one night in the summer. Who could resist ?

The first stage of work on the Royal and Ancient clubhouse is now nearing completion.  There are lights on inside which must surely mean that the decorators are busy updating the interior. It needs it.

Despite a sudden shower a small crowd of students are congregating outside the exam halls in readiness for the start of exams. There is an enforced jolliness to them of ' the condemned man whistled on his way to the guillotine ' variety.

Primroses :https://www.wildway.info/p/primula-vulgaris-primrose-wildflowers

A Glasgow flat for sale. Note the grand piano in the bedroom :https://www.onthemarket.com/details/13881367/

Ghana :https://articlesofinterest.substack.com/p/ghana-go-home

Worth a read :https://www.forkingpaths.co/p/big-gods-and-the-origin-of-human

The helicopter.

Monday morning. We have visitors at the front door. They know not to bark but the occasional short sharp 'yap' alerts us to their presence.

The two sisters lead us down to the shore. They chase hare - ineptly. The third, and eldest, doesn't join us. She's at an age where she prefers to stay near the warmth of the farmers AGA.

In the garden shop four new notices have been put up on the wall in the lobby. They list what teenagers can't buy.  Presumably all these notices are indicative of some sort of police crackdown. Who knew that you had to be 18 to buy an axe ?

There's a large Coastguard helicopter busy flying low along the shore. It passes us heading towards the leisure centre and the harbour. Five minutes later it passes us going in the opposite direction. Few students hoping for a lie in are going to be able to ignore its bone jingling hrrump hrrump hrrump noise.

The helicopter stops and hovers over the skerries on the far side of the castle. It must stay like this for a full ten minutes. Eider ducks and Fulmers scatter under the down wash of the rotor blades. The helicopters presence acts as a damper on  our walk.  Has a surf boarder misread the strength of the tides ? Has someone slipped from the cliff top ? Today , 'The Font' observes, is the first full day of exams.

The golf course busy.  Caddies in their blue gilets out providing stroke by stroke advice to visiting players.

So starts a Monday morning in a small university town far up on the North Sea coast. On our way back to the car we see what appears to be the new fast Anstruther life boat coming at high speed into the bay. Let's hope that's good news. By this time tonight we'll know what the story is.

This mornings radio music :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fuQdFsb2ybI

Londons newest hotel starting at £2050 a night :https://www.the-emory.co.uk/

Something all Celts understand :https://www.irishcentral.com/culture/ali-dunworth-funeral-pints

The calm before the storm .

 

Saturday. Our usual postman is away in Dominica with his girlfriend. The stand in delivers four magazines. The New Yorker, The LRB, The NYRB and The Economist. Seems magazines are like buses - they all show up at once. It's the St Andrews film festival. 'The Font' goes into town for the first showing of a movie about an island. It turns out to be about the death of a fisherman on a Sabbath observing island ... on the Sabbath. This I'm told, on 'The Fonts' return , was 'very interesting'. 'The Font' doesn't stay for the question and answer session afterwards on Hebridean rites of death and passage. Tickets are bought for  the screening of a Latvian Soviet realist cartoon about a man and his dog . It remains to be seen whether this will appear as interesting when the screening date rolls around. https://vimeo.com/764516710

Left alone I pick up the New Yorker. The New Yorker comes, without fail, once a week. I usually glance at the cover and put it in the soon to be forgotten ' read later' pile. Why we subscribe , and have done so for years and years , is something of a mystery. Somehow, the magazine has survived  unchallenged the annual ' Do you read it ? I don't ' culling of subscriptions. 

The magazine falls open at an article on flying cars. This is not a subject that figures on the list of things I wish I knew more about but the language is  welcoming and the technical details are addressed with a 'who'd have believed it ?' openness that brings you along rather than shuts you out. The inventor of this particular make of flying car is described as 'tall, restless and rangy'. He says 'there are two things that will put us out of business - running out of money and killing people in our planes'. Guess he's right on that.

Back here in town things are quiet. Exams start tomorrow morning so there's a calm before the storm feel to the place. We pass intent looking 21 year olds doing last minute revision at the tables outside Starbucks.  Biochemists and Applied Mathematicians are scheduled to be the first exam takers and the first to spin the wheel in the grand lottery of life. At least they'll get things over and done with quickly. Pity the poor social anthropologists who have to wait until mid May to be tested. An exceedingly pretty young lady stops and gives a serious young man an affectionate kiss. She wishes him well.  I'm guessing he ( and she ) have spent some time at university studying  'ancilliary ' subjects. " You'll be fine " she says as they part. We opted to settle down in a university town to keep us young. It's certainly kept us chuckling. We can afford to be cheerful - our exam taking days are a distant memory.

Bees again :https://www.quantamagazine.org/insects-and-other-animals-have-consciousness-experts-declare-20240419/

Hay fever :https://www.livescience.com/health/allergies/what-do-some-allergies-last-a-lifetime-newly-described-immune-cells-to-blame

This mornings car radio music :https://youtu.be/FjuuCshvAOk?t=1066

A 9/10 croissant .

Some 'red squirrel' wall art in a Glasgow car park.

A quick Google search shows there are a total of 185,000 students in Glasgow. This number seems improbably high so I check it again. Having three major universities goes a long way to explaining why the town is full of bars and eateries.

The students  seem to be getting up at about the same time as we're thinking of heading home for the night.

After some half hearted overnight drizzle the new day dawns sunny and warm. Glasgow has some of the worlds  best Victorian and Edwardian architecture. Much has been torn down but enough grandeur survives to give a hint of what the place was like when it was known as ' the second city ' of empire.

The coffee bar to the side of Queen Street Station  has an electronic departure board  inside. We allow ourselves three minutes to get from table to train ( although you could do it in under a minute ) .  The cafe  also serves good coffee and makes a croissant that could almost be French in its quality. At seven am we are the first and only customers but shall return again to savour the croissants. They get a 9/10.

The train back from Glasgow is on time and comfortable. As our train  arrives in Dundee the connecting express to Leuchars glides in on the adjacent platform. You couldn't time it better if you tried. The journey takes exactly two hours door to door . The next time we go we'll stay in the Dakota and try to get a table at The Gannet.

Back here on the coast the sun is out and the wind is almost, but not quite, balmy. We speak to Cabbages owner. She hasn't , despite her families 'it'll be good for you' prompting,  got round to accepting that a move into a home would be a good idea. We'll stay in touch. Some decisions shouldn't be rushed. We, and Cabbage, can wait.

A question for folks in the sunless North :https://knowablemagazine.org/content/article/health-disease/2024/should-you-take-vitamin-d-how-much

If the skies are clear :https://www.livescience.com/space/meteoroids/lyrid-meteor-shower-2024-how-to-watch-stunning-shooting-stars-and-fireballs-during-the-events-peak-this-week

This clip is remarkable for the fact that the actors who play the audience don't laugh once :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86qKgK0asGo