Tag: photos
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Pigeon rescue, St Andrews, Rufflets, and antique lecture notes
We got back to Aberdeen today after a couple of nights in St Andrews. Daniel wanted to go to the university open day so we decided to make it a short family holiday. More on that later. Far more exciting right now is that not long after arriving back Victoria became obsessed with something behind…
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Fowlsheugh Nature Reserve
About 20 minutes south of Aberdeen by car along the coast is the Fowlsheugh Nature Reserve which hosts the largest seabird colony on the east coast of Scotland. In summer it is teeming with over 100,000 Guillemots, Razorbills, and Kittiwakes. We visited it today. Since it’s only March there were not very many birds. You…
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Hill of Fare
Cold frosty mornings often turn into bright sunny days in this part of the world which is what we got today. To make the most of the clear skies we walked up the Hill of Fare knowing we’d get some good views at the top and we weren’t disappointed. You can see in every direction…
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Spectra 2024 and a walk in the woods
It has been a dreich weekend but while others may complain I’ve rather liked it. The soft, gentle lighting is kinder to my eyes and it also meant the queue for Spectra (Aberdeen’s annual light festival) was shorter than last year so we actually got into it this time. Last year the queue was too…
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Aberdeen Town House and other photos
This week I had the pleasure of going into Aberdeen’s Town House, a civic building built in 1868-74 by architects Peddie and Kinnear. It is built in Scottish Baronial style which means it has a neo-gothic appearance and a roofline that resembles a castle more than a city town hall. The inside of the building…
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Snow day
If it’s going to be cold then there should be snow and snow we had in abundance today. What fun it is and so pretty. And we had such fun sledging down the hill at Duthie Park. We had the whole slope to ourselves too.
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Photos of Aberdeen
I took this photo of a man in a kilt washing windows a couple of weeks ago when walking into town with Elizabeth. Only in Scotland! Last night we went to a Christmas party at Ben’s work. We’ve had several frosty days and it took us around 10 minutes to scrape all the ice off…
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Autumn colours
Last weekend we went to Angus and took these lovely photos of the autumn colours on a walk near Kinnettles Castle. Up on the hill behind the castle are two water towers that previously supplied water to the castle and estate. One of them has a door that you can open to peer inside. It’s…
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Autumn in Aberdeenshire
Stunning autumn colours in the Scottish countryside today. This is Scolty Hill in Aberdeenshire: the best little corner of the planet. The tower behind us in this next photo is a 300m high monument built for a local man, General William Burnett, who fought alongside Wellington in the Napoleonic Wars. There’s a spiral staircase inside…
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Granny is here, a wave from the King, and a knitting trail
My mother is visiting from Australia which is extra special because it has been more than four years since we last saw her. Today we drove out to Braemar in celebration for lunch and a walk. As we drove past Crathie we saw lots of people gathered and realised the King was about to leave…
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Anthony Horowitz in Braemar
How beautiful is this scene? The view is looking down towards the village of Braemar from Craig Choinnich. We do this walk quite a lot because you get such great rewards with little effort. It’s only about 25 minutes up the hill from the village and you get magnificent views in all directions. The first…
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I knitted a dress
I’ve been slack at writing lately because all my spare time has been spent knitting. I need one of those stickers for the car window that says, “I’d rather be knitting”. I just completed my first dress and it has turned out rather well. It was knit in the round from the top down. Last…
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Strathmore Highland Games at Glamis Castle
We gave Grandad a true Scottish experience today at the Strathmore Highland Games at Glamis Castle. There was highland dancing – which Elizabeth participated in – caber tossing, stone throwing, running, cycling, tug-of-war, and various other heavy weight competitions including ones I’d never seen before like throwing beer barrels and carrying whopping great hunks of…
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House of Dun
We went for a tour of the gorgeous House of Dun today, a Georgian home built for the Erskine family in 1743 by the architect William Adam. In 1980, the 21st and last Laird of Dun, Millicent Lovett (nee Erskine), died without an heir and left the house and contents to the National Trust of…
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Glen Esk and Loch Lee
Scotland never ceases to surprise me with its landscapes. Decades ago when I came here as a very young adult I can remember driving around with friends and it felt like every mile or so we wanted to stop the car and take photos. It felt a bit like that today. You can drive up…
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Snow day
It’s a winter wonderland in Aberdeen today. School was cancelled so the kids made excellent use of their free time and created a snowman.
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Duthie Park in the snow
Duthie Park was looking quite lovely yesterday. I took these photos on my run.
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Glamis Castle
Glamis Castle is famous for being the ancestral home of the former Queen Mother, Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon. It has been in the Lyon family since 1372. Princess Margaret was also born in the castle. Perhaps an even bigger claim to fame is as the setting for Shakespeare’s Macbeth and also as a film location for some…
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Photos from our weekend
Friends of ours who we haven’t seen since 2014 visited us from New Zealand this weekend. It’s wonderful to catch up with old friends again. Daniel in particular really bonded with the son who is a similar age to him. Here’s a photo in our backyard, complete with finger in front of the lens. On…
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Linn of Quoich
We had a delightful walk at the Linn of Quoich today. We walked upstream along the Quoich River further than we’ve gone before and I found myself having to stop over and over again for photos because it was just so pretty. It was very quiet too. Practically no-one else there. Daniel pooed on the…
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