Tag: Scotland
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Wild and windy February day at Torry battery
Everywhere in Scotland has been getting massive amounts of snow except for Aberdeen. One family in Moray couldn’t even get out their front door there was so much snow. All Scottish ski fields have more snow than they’e had for years, probably decades, and yet they’re all shut because of covid and we can’t leave…
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A dream come true
Today was a good day. It has long been a dream of mine to ice skate outside in a natural environment and today I ticked that off my list. Aberdeen has had several days of sub-zero temperatures, freezing the water in lakes and ponds. We found what is really just a puddle of water on…
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The snow gods delivered
The plague is raging through the British population faster than an anti-vaccination conspiracy theory on Facebook. I can’t see lockdown ending at all until a significant proportion of the population has been vaccinated. But it’s not all bad: today the snow gods brought snow to cheer spirits and get people outside into the fresh air.…
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Full lockdown for Scotland
The covid situation in the UK is pretty dire right now with close to 60,000 cases per day. It’s worse than it was back in March at the height of the first peak. I read that hospitals in London are now cancelling vital cancer surgery. This is the reason covid is so deadly. It may…
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Elrick Hill
Being confined to Aberdeen, or within 5 miles of the boundary of Aberdeen due to covid restrictions, has stymied our walks in the countryside quite a bit. But it has forced us to look for hidden gems close to home and Elrick Hill is one such place. I’d never been here before but it was…
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The Nightingale Hospitals and snow at Drum Castle
We are in tier 4 covid restrictions here as is most of the UK as the sick in hospital reach record numbers. At the start of the pandemic the government was following its pandemic playbook which had been written in the years/decades leading up to 2020 but specifically for a flu pandemic. The plan included…
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Two countries and their Christmas strategies, the 5-mile boundary, and Manifesto
One of my coworkers lives in Italy and he told me they’re going into lockdown from December 24th – 27th and then again from December 31st – January 3rd. This is the opposite of what’s happening in the UK where everyone is in lockdown now but we’re free to meet other households from the 23rd…
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Abedeen in tier 3 for Christmas
For the second time this year we’ve had to cancel a holiday due to covid. We were due to go to the highlands on Monday for 6 days to self-catering holiday accommodation but they’re moving Aberdeen into tier 3 on Friday at 6pm which effectively puts a fence around the city for everyone living here.…
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Winter wonderland, Braemar
After last Sunday’s disappointing walk in Tullos Wood we went further afield today for a walk in Braemar. The recent snowfall in the highlands has created a winter wonderland and we were gifted a beautifully sunny day. The last part of the drive from Crathie to Braemar is always lovely but today the mist over…
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O Christmas tree
We put our Christmas tree up last weekend. It’s the same timber tree we use every year that we bought in the UK several years ago. Unfortunately the company appears to have gone out of business now but we love our tree. The lights are up in the city centre and they’re very pretty, especially…
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Prince Albert’s Cairn
I love Sundays. This is the one day of the week when none of us is working and there are no extracurricular activities to take children to. We like to spend our Sundays walking in the hills somewhere in Aberdeenshire and perhaps because there’s a bit of royal mania with the latest release of The…
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Cycling to Aberdeen beach … with children
A friend of mine started cycling around Aberdeen with her young children during lockdown when the roads were quiet and they’ve continued even now the roads are busy again. She inspired me to try the same with Daniel and Elizabeth because although I have cycled with them many times around Aberdeen, they always sit in…
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Not a kitten any more, cycling lessons, and in the paper
Victoria sleeps in our bed most nights now and I mean literally in our bed. She buries herself under the covers head and all. I don’t know how she can stand it. It must get terribly hot. I think she probably alternates and spends some of the time on the bed and some of the…
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I can’t even begin to desribe my frustration and disappointment with Aberdeen city council … again
Last month for the first time ever I was impressed with the Aberdeen city council for installing European-style bike lanes at the beach. This was a first for Aberdeen which is an oil city with a transport strategy straight out of the 1970s. The bike lanes were built with funding from the Sustrans Spaces for…
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I broke my phone and photos of the autumn colours
My last blog post I wrote and published from my new phone when I was out and about in town. As I walked back home, tragedy struck when I dropped my phone, smashing the screen. I had bought a spigen phone case for it because these had always protected my iPhone very well but they…
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Macdui Lodge, Aviemore
When we went to Aviemore we stayed in a pretty cool place so I thought I’d write about it. Our accommodation was Macdui Lodge at Pine Bank Chalets. This was our second visit to Pine Bank Chalets and it won’t be the last. The owners are so nice, the chalets are well-run, and the location…
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Loch an Eilein and Landmark Forest Adventure Park
We’re back from our holiday in Aviemore and although we were sad to leave it’s nice to have decent wifi again at the very least so I can see all the photos we took. It’s also nicer to view them on a big screen. My new Samsung phone has a brilliant camera and so we…
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Purple cardigan
A British mathematican at Imperial College London has won a mathematics prize worth £2.3 million. I had no idea there was this much money in maths. I’ve told Ben he needs to start proving more theorems. Covid-19 is on the rise again in the UK which means we need to be more careful than ever…
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Online schooling
The kids started back at their online school yesterday. Everything went very well and I think they even enjoyed it. They were both ready to go back. Elizabeth started labelling all her notebooks last week and transcribed her French dictionary into the new book. The school gives them a nice structure to the day as…
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Swimming in the Dee
I’ve been a bit grumpy this past week because sometimes it feels like the world is conspiring against me. Earlier in the year I planted lots of sweet pea seeds. Only one of them germinated and when it had grown to about 10cm tall I planted it at the base of the tree on the…
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