Leaving St Andrews

On Friday, we leave St Andrews to head down South (in stages), before returning to Australia. We have an overnight stay in a small village south of Edinburgh, and then drive to Windermere on Saturday.

A Last Look at the Garden

Judi & Car

The weather this week has returned to summer, so we decided to take some photos of the car and the garden. During the past few weeks the gardener has been working very hard on the flower beds and they are starting to look very pretty.



This week has been distinguished by the inclusion of all the graduation ceremonies for the University of St Andrews. The ceremonies themselves (8 in all, two a day from Tuesday to Friday) take place in the building opposite our house and we get a bird's eye view of it all. What we didn't realise though was that, at the end of the proceedings, everyone parades down North Street with a bagpiper at the front and rear of the procession.

Front of Graduation Procession

The Procession Grows

Yesterday we heard the piper start up, but, by the time we realised what was about to happen, we missed the chance to take pictures. This morning, Lloyd visited the library, and as he came into the house, he annouced that there was a piper in full regalia opposite. We rushed out just in time to witness the whole procession. The pictures below give some idea of what it was like.

...and Grows

...and Grows

Rear Guard Piper

An Afternoon Trip to Crail and Anstruther

Crail Harbour

Although the weather was alternating between sunhine and cloud this morning, we decided to take another trip down to the fishing villages of Crail and Anstruther. On our last visit we walked down to Pittenweem harbour, but ran out of steam before visiting the other two. The remainder of this post will describe itself in pictures.


Crail Coastline

May Island from Crail

Anstruther Harbour

Anstruther Front & Harbour

Beach at Anstruther

Judi Anstruther Harbour

Lloyd Anstruther Harbour

Olympic Torch Relay St Andrews

Very early this morning, there was much excitement in North Street, as the Olympic Torch Relay hit town.

In fact, yesterday we were held up on our way back from a day trip we made to Stirling, so that the torch could travel ahead of us through all the villages along the A91 - the only road into St Andrews. The relay route for yesterday was officially from Aberdeen to Dundee, but it had taken a rather roundabout route to take in these smaller villages. Apparently, the aim is to have the torch be accessible to over 98% of the total population of the British Isles. A few days ago the flame was flown up to the Orkney and Shetland Islands. Once on the ground, various people ran with it up there.

It finished in Dundee last night, and arrived in St Andrews at 6.00am this morning. There was a 'tickets only' event in St Salvator's College quad before the relay came past our house. However, I read online that the St Andrews Pipe Band would be entering the quad to mark the official lighting of the first torch, so I headed down there at 6.15am.

Some of the Official Escort for the Torch

The first sign of activity is masses of police cars and motor cycles all with flashing lights. These are followed by buses containing the runners and other paraphernalia that gets deposited along the route; and finally a bus arrives containing the flame itself. There is quite a bit of discussion about the flame travelling by bus rather than the ancient tradition of running it everywhere. Lloyd says that there is a parallel relay doing it properly, but I didn't see any sign of it this morning.

Bus Containing Olympic Flame

At 6.45am, right on cue, the unmistakable sounds of bagpipes warming up could be heard, the drummers started and round the corner the band all came. The precision of drumming in Scottish pipe bands is amazing, and for me there is nothing like the sound of bagpipes.

The band was followed by the dignatories of the University of St Andrews all in their full regalia. These were the very same people with whole we had enjoyed lunch last week.

St Andrews Pipe Band

St Andrews Pipe Band

Once the band was safely installed into the quad and I had heard the rest of their playing, I dashed back to the house to see the torch pass the house.

First Runner in North Street

At 7.00am, the church bells of St Salvator's College Chapel rang out and the first runner left the college to run up North Street in front of our house. As the lounge is on the third floor, I got an excellent view as it went past.

Olympic Torch Passes 40 North Street

A minor incovenience of the torch relay though, is that we missed the fact that our garbage collection was a day earlier than usual. Our bin is normally picked up on a Wednesday morning, and when we were putting it out as usual last night, a neighbour told us that the collectors had visited on Tuesday morning to allow for the street to be completely closed for the relay. I'm not sure how we were to have found this out; but we didn't know unfortunately.

Carnegie Centenary Lecture

Lloyd has now delivered his final presentation for his visit to the University of St Andrews. He presented the Carnegie Centenary Lecture at the Conference on Foundations of Logical Consequence. This was quite a big deal and some of the people from yesterday's lunch were in the audience. The glossy posters for the conference itself and the Carnegie Centenary Lecture are included below.

All in all the lecture seems to have gone well and represents the final of 15 different talks Lloyd was contracted to deliver during his appointment to the University of St Andrews. Given that Lloyd does not like to present 'old' material, but always works up something new for each talk, this has been quite a feat.

The conference itself continues for the next two days over the weekend, and there are still other seminars Lloyd will be attending during the remaining two weeks here before we head off to the Lake District and London.

Lunch in Honour of Carnegie Centenary Professorship

This week has generally been devoted to Judi working on University of Melbourne administration, and Lloyd both presenting his final seminar on Monday June 4 and preparing to deliver the Carnegie Centenary Lecture at the Conference on the Foundations of Logical Consequence (FLC) this weekend (starting today - Friday). Lloyd's visit to St Andrews was principally organised so that he could participate in, and contribute to, the AHRC-funded FLC project.

However, yesterday (Thursday) we both took a break from our work to attend a lunch at which Lloyd (in his capacity as Carnegie Centenary Professor) was the guest of honour. We were to meet Professor Peter Clark from the 'Principal's Office' at 12.15pm to be walked over to the Regent's Room in St Salvator's College at 12.30pm for lunch. It turns out that the Principal is in fact the Vice Chancellor of the University of St Andrews. Lloyd found himself sitting next to the Principal - Professor Louise Richardson. I was seated opposite Lloyd, and was flanked by the Deputy Principal (Professor Chris Hawkesworth) and the Chairman of the Carnegie Trust - Professor Sir David Edward.

There were a total of 18 guests at the lunch and we sat at an enormous long wooden table alongside a fireplace with Latin inscriptions. Some of the period between courses was spent by us all having a go at translating the inscriptions. The other guests were various dignitaries from around the University; but Lloyd was pleased to see that a number of the graduate and post-doc students he has been interacting with at meetings and at Ardtornish were also invited.

Despite the fact that we were in such esteemed company, the lunch was very enjoyable, and we were both pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to interact with the VC and others. The food was also very good. I cannot give a completely accurate account of what we ate as there was no menu provided. The entree consisted of a sort of cheese soufflé, although Lloyd thought that it might have been a little too dense to be categorised as a soufflé. It was nevertheless tasty and served with watercress and a few slices of mushrooms. I had Scottish salmon for main course and Lloyd had a chicken breast wrapped round some filling and served with a sauce. Dessert was crème brulée served with a small portion of fruit compote and ice cream, followed by coffee. The whole event concluded at 2.00pm after some brief speeches.

I am afraid that there are no photos to attach to this post. It would have been nice if someone had taken a photo of Lloyd and me yesterday as we were all dressed up in our finery for the lunch, but no one did. Never mind.

Back in St Andrews

On Saturday morning we went to the St Andrews Farmers' Market. There is a local Farmers' Market on every Saturday, but the first Saturday in the month is the turn of St Andrews. We walked down to it and immediately became aware of the presence of one of the delicacies Judi intended to sample - Arbroath Smokies. We had been made aware of this dish from a couple of television programs we had watched back in Melbourne. Arbroath smokies are a type of smoked haddock – a speciality of the town of Arbroath which is just beyond Dundee (about 45 minutes away).

The fish are gutted and salted before a smokie pit is prepared. A hole is dug in the ground, and a half whisky barrel is set into it. The base of the barrel is lined with slates to protect it, and a hardwood fire of beech and oak is lit inside. The sticks of fish are then placed over the pit and the hessian cover allows the fire to breathe and maintain the required heat. The number of layers and dampening of the ‘cloots’ depends on the weather, and may be adjusted throughout the smoking to prevent the fish either smoking too quickly and burning, or smoking too slowly and drying out. More details and some pictures can be found at: http://www.arbroathsmokies.net/

Judi bought one of the Arbroath Smokies and some home-baked bread to enjoy for lunch a little later. It was truly delicious and lived up to all expectations.

On Sunday Judi decided to see if she could locate the place that St Andrews Baptist Church meets for their Sunday morning services. The church itself is in South Street, but there is a notice outside to say that the 10.30am Sunday service meets at Madras College. There is a rather complicated map that had deterred Judi in the past, but this week, she decided to investigate. Google maps were particularly helpful, and showed a walking route that took about 15 minutes to complete.

Judi left the house at 10.00am, map in hand, and successfully negotiated the route to the meeting place. It turns out that the church needs to meet at this hall because the congregation no longer fits into the church building in south street. It is rather gratifying in this day and age that there are still churches as active as this one, especially as the Church of England congregations are aging and shrinking.

The service was somewhere between St Jude's and Syndal in style. For example, there were hymns and songs like both St Jude's and Syndal, but we also joined together in the Confession of Sins, the Lord's Prayer and the Grace at the conclusion of the service. None of these more formal parts of Sunday services are included at Syndal, although I am aware that they form part of morning worship at St Jude's.

Judi very much enjoyed the service, which included familiar hymns and songs. There was a pianist, saxophonist and singer providing the music, and there was an advert in the newsletter for people to join the music team. If Judi had been staying longer, she would have offered her services. Also like St Jude's and Syndal, Judi was made very welcome and several people approached her - one even suggesting a coffee catch-up in the week. This was in stark contrast to Judi's experience of the local Episcopalian church on Palm Sunday. She will definitely making the journey to return for next week's service.

Botanical Gardens

In the afternoon, we both went walking to the Botanical Gardens. These are quite extensive and very beautiful. Lloyd had visited them while Judi was back in Melbourne, but the weather had been cold and rather unpleasant. Today in contrast it was bright and sunny.

Botanical Gardens

 One interesting aspect of St Andrews Botanical Gardens is that there are a number of greenhouses, each of which has a different climate and vegetation. It is possible to walk between them without going outside at all. The Alpine one for example was cool and arid, but the tropical ones were exceptionally hot and humid. One of the hothouses caused Lloyd's glasses to completely mist over, and he could not see anything!

On the way to the gardens, we passed a street party for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee which is being celebrated this weekend. Unlike London where it poured with rain for the celebrations, St Andrews had lovely weather for their festivities.

A Walk in the Grounds of Ardtornish

Ardtornish Gardens

On Thursday, the conference program was pretty continuous, but there was an hour or so after the official lunch break during which we went for a walk in the Ardtornish gardens/grounds themselves. The grounds are vast and extend right along the side of Loch Aline (seen from our loungeroom window) to the village of Lochaline. There are a number of cottages for rent in the grounds of the main house, one of which was called Rose Cottage (pictured).

Rose Cottage

There is also an extensive grid of rivers and brooks, the most impressive of which (Gear Abhain) runs alongside Kinlochaline castle. The castle is a strange looking structure, rather higher than it is wide.

Gear Abhain

Kinlochaline Castle