Tag: Aberdeen
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How to have your photo taken
My sister, Susie, is here for the weekend and I took her out for lunch to the Foodstory café on Thursday (best café in Aberdeen) but she refused to let me take a photo of her. Why don’t people like having their photos taken? I love having my photo taken and I’m so good at it,…
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Countesswells Woods and a strange dream
I have just been to the best children’s party I’ve ever attended. Ok, so maybe that’s not saying much: children’s parties aren’t exactly known for their entertainment value to adults. But this was different and I can honestly say it was an enjoyable and even relaxing experience. The words “Children’s party” and “relaxing” don’t usually go…
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Should I chain myself to a tree?
A little part of me grieves whenever someone chops down a tree and this very nearly happened today. This morning some workmen appeared on our street to chop down several beautiful old beech trees. We did not receive any warning of this other than a street sign which appeared about a week ago to say there’d be roadworks…
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Home again
I’m back at home in Aberdeen after a superb week in Dublin. I flew into Aberdeen yesterday and the views from the plane made me feel so lucky to live here. I could see mountains with snow in the distance, next to rolling hills and then patchwork fields of crops, forest, the silver rows of…
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More snow
One day the novelty will wear off but for the moment I’m still just as excited as ever by the sight of snow. It snowed today despite being a positively balmy 4°C. We had snow last week too which was beautiful. Busby is still at the bike shop so the kids have had to walk…
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More snow in Aberdeen
Most of the snow melted yesterday but then it snowed again overnight so there are beautiful scenes outside again today. I wish we had more days like this each winter but I guess Aberdeen is too close to the sea and the mercury mostly hovers above 0°C over the winter. Still, I really love the…
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Snow in Aberdeen!
Last night I decided we were going to book a car today and drive in search of some snow. But when I woke up and looked out our bedroom window this is what I saw: Finally the snow has come to Aberdeen. Yay! The summer house in our backyard: I think the gnome in our…
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I’m famous!
I was in the local paper yesterday – the print version rather than the online version. On Monday someone tweeted me this: (thanks, Steve Bloom!) Things are moving by pedal force in Europe. https://t.co/CKeFJvV8nH — Vissi d'arte, vissi d'amore. (@joranfagerlund) January 13, 2016 I decided to alert Aberdeen City Council to the article in a…
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More cycling in the rain
More rain today and so more cycling in the rain. This time to the beach. I was tempted to go in for a dip but I didn’t have my bathers with me. Ben’s thinking, “What on earth are those giant cotton reels behind me?” I have a new rain coat which got drenched. I saw this…
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Cycling in the snow
What do you on a cold Saturday afternoon just as it’s starting to rain? Go for a bike ride of course. Only sissies are afraid of the rain. We cycled to Newton Dee as I was in need of chocolate – it has been at least a couple of weeks since I had my last fix…
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Igloos and ice-skating
It’s another beautiful day here today with sun and blue sky. The only thing missing is the snow but it’s so warm there’s no chance of that happening. One day I’d love to visit Kakslauttanen Arctic Resort in Lapland where there is guaranteed snow and where kids can also visit Santa Claus. Kakslauttanen have these fantastic-looking glass…
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Aberdeen Christmas Village
There’s a Christmas village in Aberdeen this year! This is apparently the first time the city has had one so we went and had a look. We went first on Saturday afternoon and it was heaving. In fact it was so busy that we decided to leave and come back again first thing this morning…
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In town without my car day
Today is “In town without my car day” and as big advocates of the pedestrianisation of city centre streets we thought we should go along and lend our support. They had closed off some streets to cars which was marvellous and put lots of fun activities in their place like a giant water slide, a…
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We’re famous
There are a couple of photos of us in today’s EveningExpress taken at the Wee Jaunt yesterday. Not such a great one of me because it looks like I’m flashing but fortunately you can’t see anything. Ben showed his photo to a PhD student at work hoping to impress him but his response was, “It would look more…
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Cycling infrastructure in Aberdeen
We went for quite a stressful bike ride today. It was supposed to be a pleasant afternoon cycling along a newly discovered bike path but traffic and a lack of suitable crossings for bicycles made it stressful. I took a photo of one of the crossings we made to point out how inadequate it is for bicycles.…
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Surviving a haircut and learning to swim
I took Daniel to get a haircut today at the first barber’s I came to on our way to swimming. The hairdresser was a short and muscular middle-eastern-looking man with tattoos up and down each arm. It all seemed to be going fairly well except that Daniel kept moving his head. He’s not the easiest customer and indeed for…
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A new cycle path for Aberdeen
A new cycle route opened up in Aberdeen this week. It’s a shared walking/cycling path which runs right next to the River Dee. I went and checked it out today and it was just lovely. It’s hard to believe this is in a big city (maybe big is not the best word for Aberdeen?) because it’s…
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Stromness to Aberdeen by ferry + train
My post yesterday about Skara Brae and the Ring of Brodgar was rather rushed because we had to dash for a long day of traveling. But both places were absolutely fascinating. Skara Brae was particularly good. How often do you get to see the house, including furniture, of a Neolithic human? All the walls were…
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Duthie Park and buying a house
I took this photo of Duthie Park back in April this year just before all the buds on the trees opened up for spring: Today I went for a run through the park and took some more photos. Here’s how it looks now: I love watching the plants and trees change with the seasons. Duthie…
