insignificant ramblings of a 50-something woman
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Refillosophy
Refilleries are popping up everywhere in Aberdeen; soon we’ll need two hands to count them all. A refillery is a type of grocery store that allows you to refill containers with food and cleaning products as a way to reduce single-use plastics. It’s heartening to see there’s increasingly more choice for consumers because it means…
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Exclusively Highlands
Last Sunday we went to the Exclusively Highlands art, craft, and food fair at Kincardine Castle. This market travels around Scotland and sells exclusively locally made goods which is why I like it so much. There’s stuff there you can’t buy anywhere else and I always like looking at things people have made themselves. Kincardine…
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Another report and the message on climate change is still the same – our emissions must be zero
I used to write about climate change quite a bit on my blog. The first posts date from 2013. I was usually prompted to write after having an emotional reaction to something I had read or heard – usually someone denying it was happening. One of my earliest posts was prompted by claims that climate…
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Helen Bur art in Aberdeen #nuart
I was very excited to see this art by Helen Bur on the side of a building in Aberdeen. It’s terrific. The couple in the scene are friends of hers who have recently had a baby. You can watch a timelapse of her creating it here – Time-lapse of artist Helen Bur creating the last…
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Levelling-up the animals
Growing up in Australia has given me a healthy respect for dangerous wildlife. Sometimes it feels like every animal is trying to eat or poison you which is unsurprising given the country has more animals with deadly venom than anywhere else. I find it funny how the same animal in Scotland is relatively harmless. It’s…
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A week in Braemar
Our holiday is over. All good things must come to an end and now we have lots of wonderful memories to tide us over until the next one. The week we’ve just spent in Braemar was our first full week of holiday since our trip to Glencoe in April 2019, more than two years ago.…
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Braemar Castle
Today we went on a tour of Braemar Castle, an L-plan tower house built in 1628 by John Erskine. It has a colourful history having been a hunting lodge, an important garrison after the Jacobite rising, it was attacked and burned by John Farquharson in 1689 and then a century later bought by another John…
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High tea at the Fife Arms
We did something special for Elizabeth today to commemorate her finishing primary school and starting high school. She somehow missed both the beginning and the end of primary school and I know she was upset about missing the end. When we first moved to the UK in October 2014, year 1 primary school had begun…
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Ballochbuie forest and the Falls of Garbh Allt
The Ballochbuie Forest is a fine remnant of the ancient Caldeonian forest which once covered much of Scotland. It was saved from being felled by Queen Victoria in 1878 and is the first example of woodland conservation in Scotland. Since then subsequent generations of the royal family have protected it. It’s not hard to see…
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Our trout friend, Segways, squirrels, and the River Dee
I haven’t done so much swimming since I was a kid when we’d spend a week or two at the beach over the summer holidays. I’d get sunburnt and dumped by waves but generally have a very good time. We’ve been swimming with the trout in the Clunie River everyday and we’ve named one of…
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Swimming at the Linn of Dee and Linn of Quoich
There was more wild swimming for us today. This time we swam in the Linn of Dee and the Linn of Quoich. Linn means a “pool below a waterfall”. The Linn of Dee is a well-known tourist attraction about 6.5 miles from Braemar. It was a favourite spot of Queen Victoria’s and is a gorge…
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Swimming in the Clunie River
Yesterday was another warm day and we swam in the Clunie River in Braemar. It was refreshing, crystal clear, and home to lots of juvenile trout. The trout ranged in size from tiny to an adult that was at least half a metre long. They can live for 10 to 20 years apparently and are…
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A pingdemic and flood warnings
The pandemic has turned into a “pingdemic” in the UK because as new cases soar to over 50,000 a day, so too has the number of people getting pinged as a close contact and having to self-isolate for ten days. It’s so bad that many shops can’t open due to staff shortages. We have been…
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Cooling off in the Dee
The temperature has reached a top of 26C today. I think this is the hottest temperature I’ve ever felt in Aberdeen. We had no choice but to cool off in the river. We cycled up Deeside Way a short way and walked down to the River Dee near Allan Park. There are some nice swimming…
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Crochet swimsuit, redcurrant jam, and an old video of Elizabeth
I crocheted myself a pair of bathers. I’m not sure whether I’ll wear them in public. The colour matches my skin a bit too closely and makes it look like I’m wearing nothing. It was fun to make though. Yesterday I picked some redcurrants and stewed them up to make jam. I used water, redcurrants,…
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It’s more than just football
I watched some of the football last night. This might seem insignificant but it’s anything but. I’ve never watched a game of football in my entire life and never had the slightest bit of interest in the sport so for me to sit and choose to watch the game is a Halley’s comet moment. I…
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Second jab side-effects and the ethics of vaccination
I spoke too soon in my last post about not having any side-effects after the second Pfizer jab. A few hours later I developed a fever, headache, aches and pains, and a swollen lymph node in my armpit on the vaccinated arm. After the first dose it felt like I had a marble under my…
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Ripping the bandaid off
I had my second Pfizer jab last night. Aside from a sore arm and feeling slightly tired I haven’t had any other side-effects. I felt a bit tired after the first jab too and several days later developed a swollen lymph node under my arm on the side I was vaccinated. This went away after…
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Swimming at Potarch Bridge
We went for a swim at Potarch Bridge today. It was smashing and I realised that it’s the first time I’ve been wild swimming in summer in Scotland. Usually I just do the idiotic thing and submerge myself mid-winter for bragging rights. After all, what’s the point of doing something if you can’t brag about…
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Tomintoul
We went to the village of Tomintoul today. Many times we’ve driven through it and I’ve always thought it looked cute and wanted to linger but usually we’re en route somewhere and haven’t had time to stop. Today we made a special visit just to see Tomintoul. Tomintoul is about 60 miles west of Aberdeen…
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