Let's hope joy is contagious.

The usual cast of dog walking characters on the beach. We greet them all with a hearty 'Good morning'. The ageing poodle with four arthritic paws is off to see the vet about new and more powerful painkillers. Todays big local news is something that Angus and President Trump find themselves wholly in agreement on :https://www.seabird.org/press-releases/devastating-news-for-scotland-s-seabirds-as-berwick-bank-is-consented

We detour back to Starbucks via the club house.

An ultra-competitive group of Californians are playing each stroke of the Old Course as if their lives depended on it. This is golf as performative art. 

The caddies and the locals look on in mute amazement. One gentleman lands on the green and then takes three putts to sink the ball. The others cheer him on.

Off to the side a sound recordist and a cameraman are capturing the impressions of four gentlemen who have been on a golf tour. We listen as they describe their experiences of the three Trump courses ( awesome ) , Carnoustie ( unforgiving ), Royal Dornoch ( God damn difficult ) and now here ( truly humbling ). They have paid the camera crew to follow them as they played each course and captured the drama of every hole they've played. Providing posterity with a weeks worth of their insights and memories can't have been cheap.

The Royal and Ancient have new garden plantings. They seem to have gone for the Mediterranean garden approach. How this will stand up to the rain and wind of the Scottish coast will be interesting to monitor.

Two fresh faced American college kids have discovered they're on the ballot and are going to be allowed to play the sacred turf.  They share their unexpected good news with anyone that will listen. Last night they had been told that there was no chance. This morning they've struck gold and have been told by the lady in the pavillion that they're on in half an hour. Luck favours the fresh faced and audacious. One youngster dances a jig. The other wipes his eyes. Parents in Cleveland are called with the good news. It's two thirty in the morning there so let's hope joy is contagious. 

By the corner shop a young gull is displaying the glory of its juvenile feathers. The young gulls are fearless. So, sadly, are the cars that seem to have finished off half a dozen of them on the stretch of road that leads from the cinema to the roundabout.

Blast from the past : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEhS9Y9HYjU

Breakfast table discussion point :https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/insight-therapy/202507/women-are-more-competitive-with-each-other-than-are-men

Americans spend 4 hours a day on average thinking about money :https://www.empower.com/the-currency/money/money-on-the-mind-research?stream=business

AI :https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/making-sense-of-the-ai-revolution/

Plus ca change :https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/los-angeles-1936-bum-blockade-targeted-american-migrants-fleeing-poverty-and-drought-during-the-great-depression-180987022/

The first geese heading south.

August almost upon us. Here, after the summer period of endless nights, it's now getting dark by ten and there's a decided nip in the evening air after eight. Yesterday the farmer harvested the wheat in the large field by the main road. He's now working his way down towards us. This morning he saw the first flock of half a dozen or so geese heading south. Soon the fields around here will be home to hundreds of them gleaning what's left of the grain before starting their long journey home. The sight of geese, perhaps more than anything else, is a signal that we should order heating oil and make sure the rose in the wine cellar is drunk quickly. After the geese have gone the students arrive.

A snorting noise tells us we have company. 

Puppy is starting her day full of energy. After a good nights sleep she's supercharged. She doesn't so much run as fly down the track. Butterflies scatter on either side as she approaches.

Puppy follows us down to the shore then follows us back along the track to the courtyard. She drops a yellow ball at my feet every twenty yards or so.

When we head off in the car she's still sitting in the barley field and watches us drive away with disbelief. What could be more important than spending a morning throwing a ball ? The farmers wife has given up all hope of keeping her safely confined to the farmhouse garden. The latest attempt involved a sixty foot long nylon rope . Despite being 'indestructible' the rope was soon chewed through.

So starts a sunny Thursday morning on the east coast of Scotland. Town is still super-busy with severe looking men taking a few days R&R on their way back to Dulles.

Have your own Afghan rug made :https://afghanu.com/custom-handmade-rugs/

Swedens walking church is about to walk :https://kirunalapland.se/en/event/kiruna-church-move/

Indonesia progresses :https://www.global-developments.org/p/indonesia-climbs-the-chain

I shall ignore this article:https://www.sciencealert.com/study-reveals-turning-point-when-your-bodys-aging-accelerates

The classics for an AI generation :https://www.alexandria.wiki/home

Layering helps

A gentle sunset last night. It's still (just) warm enough to sit outside until near ten although layering helps. Before we turn in a group of large grey transport aircraft slowly move in formation towards the west. 'Someone' is heading home.

We'd not seen many butterflies this year but the warm weather finally brings them out. Each species seems to have its own micro-territory. The cabbage whites cluster around the top of the track, the red admirals prefer the middle and the peacocks swarm on the thistles where the track makes a sheltered dog leg down to the sea. 

There must be fifty or sixty peacocks which must be some sort of record. They are remarkably difficult to photograph part in due to their 'skittishness' and part due to the breeze which wildly rocks whatever plant they've settled on.

We park in town and observe a teacher with a particularly annoying group of Italian teenagers . She loses it when they wander, oblivious to oncoming cars, onto the street. " This is a pavement, that is the road " she screams in a way that tells us an alternative vocation to teaching may lie in her immediate future. The Italian teenagers ignore her and saunter, slowly, across the road. Italian teenagers take the teenage hormonal thing to whole new levels.

The American hedge fund managers new extension has got to the stage where the old buildings have been cleared away and the equipment for digging out the foundations has been delivered to the site. The view onto the old cathedral ruins from the new house will be 'awesome' although we're told he's unhappy that he didn't get permissions for a basement swimming pool.

Africa's population :https://asteriskmag.com/issues/11/yes-in-my-bamako-yard

Thoughts on India :https://andrewbatson.com/2025/07/27/india-and-the-invidious-comparison-with-china/

Flooding in Oregon :https://thedebrief.org/13000-years-ago-a-catastrophic-flood-scoured-oregons-ancient-landscape-new-satellite-images-reveal-the-lasting-impact/

Medicine :https://www.civitasinstitute.org/research/how-america-became-the-worlds-medicine-chest--and-why-that-status-is-at-risk

A map showing the largest sectorial employer by state. I'm sure the same is true in Europe :https://committeetounleashprosperity.com/hotlines/we-have-to-do-something-about-runaway-health-costs/

Retained warmth.

The village is  home to a number of 30 something academics who make the daily  five minute commute into town. Holiday house swapping is a big thing with this demographic. A chance for local Scots to experience life in other, hopefully warmer, parts of the world. The other side of the equation come here looking for relief from their summer heat. Everyone is happy. 30 somethings with families rarely have anything breakable that's not already been broken so having someone else in the house isn't a risk.  This morning we're passed by a Canadian father and three excited youngsters heading to the beach. Mother, we're told, was up late last night unpacking and is having a 'lie in'. The youngsters are at that age where life is all about adventure and sleep is impossible.

Despite the early hour folks are also out and about on the sand below the old castle. It's been cloudy overnight and the air has retained much of yesterdays warmth. Unbelievably, the summer schools are already in their wind down stage. Soon the bemused teenagers will be heading home :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3onYec3tDe8 . 

At the garden centre a pretty comprehensive list of rules designed to stop the local teenagers from sniffing glue.

A defiant gull makes it clear that  the 'bird proof' trash cans are his territory. He glares at us to make sure we don't run off with any of last nights discarded fish and chip wrappers.

An idiot owner has allowed their dog off the lead by the sheep field. It's leapt over the boundary fence and badly bitten one of the nursing mothers. The ranger tells us that after being taken to the vet the ewe is nervous but otherwise fine. Two other dog owners saw what was happening and intervened. The culprit ( some form of terrier ) and its owner ran off.

The 13 mothers and 14 lambs have sensibly positioned themselves in the middle of the field.

Radio Scotland is in the groove this morning :https://youtu.be/RsELrcVNzG0?t=102

Must be a summer intern doing the breakfast radio music schedule. This is also played :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlbwLzUZEhk

African borders :https://www.noemamag.com/the-surprising-durability-of-africas-colonial-borders/

The earliest bird song :https://gizmodo.com/this-dinosaur-probably-chirped-like-a-bird-2000631482

The action gets closer.

Press commentary on the visit by a New York real estate mogul to our small and windswept corner of the world has, by and large, been adult and moderate. The use of an old American saying in the Sunday Times made me smile.

The surprise of the visit has been the arrival of so many hangers-on. There again if you're going to conduct trade deals on vacation you need a lot of back-up staff. Today the whole  entourage moves over to the eastern side of the country which means that even more helicopters and large grey C-17's will be flying low overhead and annoying the cormorants. https://www.nationaljournal.com/s/729167/trump-embarks-on-the-first-ever-family-business-trip-by-a-president/

The weather, as you can see, is very Scottish. The rosebay willowherb thriving in these conditions.

Highland coo's remain a favourite tourist souvenir. The one on the right has a light sensitive switch that makes its arm swing up and down in never ending greeting. This, I think, would soon prove to be exceedingly annoying.

The gentlemans outfitters has a window full of light weight summer jackets. Two of the jackets are modeled with Paisley shirts while the third has a Paisley tie set against a black shirt. The lilac jacket features a flamboyant peach coloured pocket handkerchief. Who buys clothes like this ? Will visiting secret service agents wanting to blend in with the 'Scotch folk' be tempted ? Perhaps this is the go to destination for visitors who've lost their luggage ?

For a little town there is a mid-summer menu of world class music on offer.

Tonight we shall go to an organ recital in the Episcopal church. This is a large empty barn of a building built by the Victorians for visiting English. Episcopalianism has always been something of a foreign religion in these Presbyterian parts but somehow the old building and its ageing congregation soldier on. The acoustics are rather fine in that sound echoing way you only find in large churches with lots of brass, acres of ceramic tiles and rows of highly polished oak pews.

The trolley problem - a moral dilemma explained :https://sketchplanations.substack.com/p/the-trolley-problem  You can compare your decision(s) here :https://neal.fun/absurd-trolley-problems/

Tickets for this Royal Shakespeare Company performance are already proving difficult to get. The play of the year ? ( Helpful hint opt for a date after the schools go back in September ) :https://www.rsc.org.uk/born-with-teeth

Keeping the sun off Fido :https://rajtentclubshop.com/products/dog-tent

The Norwegians are further advanced than the Scots is promoting cold weather tourism :https://www.thebolder.no/

A bit long and slow to start but worth dipping into :https://www.edwest.co.uk/p/the-world-of-peter-brown

Hints

The birds already starting to feast on the rosehips. A dozen chaffinches busy pecking away at them this morning.

In town they've started collecting for the Poppy appeal.

Yesterdays newspapers still on display in the small supermarket. The Sunday editions haven't been put out yet by the staff. The lead story is the arrival in the country of a golf club owner visiting his Scottish properties. Apparently 6,000 police are on duty although the 'showery' weather has kept the protesters away.

We're surprised to discover that in the four days since we were last out for a walk on the dunes the sheep have been busy. A dozen tiny new born  heads peeping up from the long grass. The mothers seem exhausted.

Out here on the coast we catch sight of the first of the berry pickers. A woman in a white linen suit and matching broad brimmed hat ( clearly a holiday maker ) is zigzagging from side to side down the farm track snacking as she goes. She holds her mobile phone in one hand and picks berries with the other. They're far from ripe so she may soon regret her foraging adventure. 'The Font' wonders aloud if a white linen suit is the most practical thing to wear when berry picking.

The rain has stopped the wheat from being harvested. I'd expect that to change and for the farmer to catch up during the coming week. 

Talk in the village has now turned to the harvest festival celebrations. There are more than a few hints that the northern summer is drifting gently towards autumn.

If I was eight years old I'd reckon this was the epitome of cool :https://www.tesla.com/tesla-diner  The menu is certainly aimed at an eight year olds palate :https://www.tesla.com/diner-webapp/menu/#8869b4bb-c066-4787-b237-72728628a4ad

Amish kids and allergies :https://www.zmescience.com/science/news-science/amish-dont-develop-allergies-but-why/

French food goes Japanese:https://www.muraecovillage.com/

Steps in Colorado :https://coloradosprings.gov/manitouincline

Packed to the gunnels.

 

Puppy and her elder sister are out with the farmers wife. It's just cold and windy enough for us to be wearing jumpers this morning. The first hint of autumn? Elder sister has discovered that standing on the old stone field wall provides an excellent vantage point to look for hares to chase. Puppy headed off some time ago in pursuit of crows. Life for a Scottish farm dog is a constant whirl of activity and adventure. 

We're down at the fishmonger as the days catch is still being set out.

Today we opt for lemon sole, crab and two overly large lobsters with thick shells. A thick shell, we are told by the fishmonger, is the sign of a succulent crustacean. 

'A Bonnie Wee Cake' says the sign painted onto the side of a very old Vauxhall  that's parked by the chapel. A quick search on the internet suggests that someone has a busy weekend of wedding receptions ahead : https://www.abonnieweecake.co.uk/

The town remains hectic. The bar in the 5 star hotel on the golf course is packed to the gunnels with stern looking men. It has a very 'Washington' feel to it. Black SUV's and those large Volvo's favoured by upmarket car rental companies are much in evidence. You know they're rental cars because they have that small sign on the petrol filler cap to remind you not to fill it up with diesel. We catch sight of our first MAGA hat of the season. There can be no doubting that the country is hosting an important visitor with an impressively large entourage. Hotel prices have doubled and large helicopters thud away overhead from seven 'til late. In Starbucks a gentleman wearing a Congressional Country Club baseball hat informs his colleagues ' The Scotch folk sure as hell like their coffee weak '. He then informs them what he thinks the coffee tastes like.

Glass gowns :https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-do-you-wear-a-gown-made-of-glass-marvel-at-the-eye-catching-history-of-this-unlikely-fashion-trend-180986998/

Some people learn from experience. Others don't :https://arstechnica.com/science/2025/07/study-sheds-light-on-why-some-people-keep-self-sabotaging/

Bird flu has been mild :https://www.statnews.com/2025/07/23/h5n1-bird-flu-immunity-boosted-by-previous-influenza-a-infection/

The ventral ganglion :https://www.bristol.ac.uk/news/2025/july/ancient-squid-mystery-solved.html