River swimming (numbing but exhilarating) Barefoot paddling Dam building The joy in the simple things. Wood-fired bath on the river’s edge. Bird song Deep breaths. Tree-patterned sky. The sound of water rushing by. From the river’s biting sting into the heat of the bath – bliss. Fireside meditation. Listening to the flames hiss and spit. […]
aberdeenshire
Touring Rora Dairy
Until this weekend, we had never been on a farm tour. I knew the kids would love exploring a dairy farm and so we set off in the beautiful May sunshine for the Rora Dairy Open Day. I don’t often venture north of Aberdeen and I love the sprawling farmland flanked by the coastline. Rora is […]
- Aberdeenshire
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A Weekend at Boutique Farm Bothies
Glamping at The Barley Bothy I first heard about Boutique Farm Bothies when scrolling through Instagram and saw a repost by VisitAberdeen of someone relaxing in a hot tub in a picturesque countryside setting. ‘Wood-fired hot tub’ in the caption caught my attention and I immediately wanted to find out more. Years ago, when we […]
- Aberdeenshire
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RSPB Fowlsheugh in Photos
I’ve already written about the amazing sea bird spectacle at RSPB Fowlsheugh so I thought I’d just put together a little photo blog post on our recent walk here. The lovely cliff walk is just a short drive south of Stonehaven (you can actually see Dunnottar Castle in the distance) and I can’t recommend it highly enough […]
St Cyrus Beach
Part of the St Cyrus National Nature Reserve, this beautiful beach is a must-visit if you’re in the area. Nestled into the coastline between Aberdeenshire and Angus, 18 miles south of Stonehaven, St Cyrus beach stretches for three miles, hugged by red sand cliffs and complete with interesting rock formations and a ruined castle. In previous visits […]
- Aberdeenshire
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The sea on my doorstep
I am a beach person. I grew up on the Moray Coast, spending summers and weekends in Findhorn, and I feel the tug and pull of the sea on my heart. So it is perhaps not surprising that we have ended up on the coast, living in a small fishing village called Gourdon. The last […]
Highlights of 2014
This time last year I was living in a cottage in the Speyside village of Dufftown, twelve months on and we are now living on the East Coast, after having had three different addresses this year (the Year of Packing and Unpacking). I haven’t been able to write this blog as much as I’d have […]
It’s been a while…
My rather neglected blog has been left to gather dust these last few months, I’m sorry to say. I last wrote in the summer in a snatched moment of quiet time before life frog-marched me into autumn. Recently I’ve found little time between working and motherhood for my own writing; my trips and journeys of the […]
Crovie
They huddle, gathered in a line, with hunched hills stooped behind. What hardy souls to have placed roots here, almost in the sea itself; a place so subject to the whim of waves, unrelenting on the days when whipped into a rage. Arm in arm this little row of houses perch on the very edge of […]
- Aberdeenshire
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A Morning at Drum Castle
Since moving to Culter five months ago, we’ve often driven to nearby Drum Castle to walk in its woodland (I love the peacefulness of the Old Wood of Drum). On Sunday morning, however, our walk was abandoned when we discovered that the play park my toddler has gazed at so longingly over the last few months has […]