Tag: snow
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Winter wonderland
We woke up to a glorious winter wonderland this morning which was followed by a lovely sunny day. I cycled to Newton Dee like I always do. It wasn’t slippery but it was hard work cycling on the snow. There was lots of resistance; a bit like cycling on the grass. I was grateful for…
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Autumnal snow
It’s not often we get to see snow and autumn colours simultaneously but that’s exactly what we got today. We drove past this next distillery on our way to Grantown on Spey and the building looked particularly striking in the snow. It was one of those, “Wow, look at that!” moments in the car. I…
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More sledging bloopers
These were taken last weekend. All the snow has gone now and we probably won’t see it again until next winter. It was fun while it lasted. No one was injured in the making of these videos. Me speeding down the hill …. or not. Daniel speeding down the hill and falling off. Daniel speeding…
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The Beast from the East
We haven’t been as badly affected as other parts of the country by the extreme weather. We’re close to the sea which always helps to moderate the temperature but we also haven’t had the huge snow drifts they’ve had elsewhere. No one is panic buying food and it hasn’t been particularly cold. That said, we’ve…
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First day of spring
I’ve never seen so much snow outside our front door before. Aberdeen is looking gorgeous this morning for the first day of spring. I flew back to Aberdeen from Nice yesterday afternoon and I’m very lucky to be here. All other airports in Scotland were closed and all BA and Flybe flights in and out…
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A winter person
I didn’t want to leave Ballater today. It started snowing heavily this morning and it was the kind of snow that settles for a few days; the best kind of snow. The flakes were huge and dry and it wasn’t windy or particularly cold. The snow followed us all the way back home, turning to…
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Ballochie Suspension Bridge, Braemar, Glenshee, and snow
I took these photos today of the magnificent Ballochie Suspension Bridge which is just outside Braemar. It was built in 1924 and spans the River Dee. I always admire it when we drive past, not just for the bridge itself which is beautiful in its own right but also for the setting – the forests,…
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Craigendarroch, Ballater, Scotland
Today we walked up Craigendarroch which means hill of oak (craig = hill or crag/rock, and darroch = oak). It’s a steep, rocky hill overlooking the village of Ballater. From the ground it doesn’t look very inviting because of the rocky cliffs and indeed the women behind the reception desk in our hotel tried to…
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My 10 minutes of radio fame and Ballater
Yesterday I had the very great pleasure of being on BBC Radio Scotland’s Out For The Weekend programme, which is on Friday afternoons. They called me earlier in the week to see whether I’d be interested to come in and talk about my petition and I said unequivocally, yes! It was just a short 10-minute segment…
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An almost frozen pond at Duthie Park
After a very mild Christmas the temperature has suddenly plunged. There were a few flakes of snow today and the pond at Duthie park is starting to freeze over. It’s funny how enthralled the kids are by a bit of ice. It won’t be cold enough to freeze the River Dee. I took this photo…
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Sledging bloopers
We had a fun time sledging today. Snow turns every hill into a playground. I took a short video of some of the fun, including a bit at around 30 seconds where Elizabeth careens into a tree. Ben also falls off at one point and he gets up afterwards with the speed of someone who…
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Winter wonderland
We’ve been so lucky with the snow so far this winter. It’s another winter wonderland outside this morning. Elizabeth told me that when she sees all the snow outside it makes her feel good. I know exactly what she means because I feel happy when I see it too. Here’s the bike path today: There…
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Snow in Aberdeen!
Yesterday there was lots of snow in Aberdeen and the Martin household was jumping with joy! It’s very pretty when it snows. There was much excitement in the school playground with snowballs flying in all directions. Somehow I managed to avoid getting hit. Today was a different story. It rained on the snow yesterday afternoon…
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Snow, castles, and a squirrel mug
Snow or castle? That was the question we asked ourselves yesterday when deciding what to do today. Fortuitously, we got both at Castle Fraser. The snow we had this week hasn’t completely melted at Castle Fraser and we got a taste of it on our walk around the estate. Here’s the family portrait. And the…
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Accessorising with snow
It was snowing when I dropped the kids at school today. I love it when it snows. Snow is not wet like rain and this morning I discovered it makes a nice hair accessory. As you can see I’m holding a Doctor Who magazine – there’s a story behind this. We gifted Daniel a subscription…
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The view from the cycle path
The other week I wrote about how the view on my ride to Newton Dee is different all the time. Today it looks like this. The cycle path had a thin coating of snow which made a nice crunching sound as I cycled along it. What do you think of my hat? I got it…
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Perthshire for Christmas
We’ve taken off a bit early for the Christmas holidays; we’re spending it in the very lovely Perthshire. Here are a couple of pics from the drive today. We just managed to squish everything into the Co-Wheels car, including Creeper. There was a dusting of snow today which made the landscape look beautiful. Perthshire is…
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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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Cross-country skiing in Scotland
It’s school holidays this week and so I took the day off work to take the kids on a family learn-to-cross-country-ski day at the Nordic Ski Centre in Huntly. I have been skiing a few times but never cross-country skiing and the children have never been on skis at all. Cross-country skiing appealed to me because it’s…
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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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