Guest post: “Scotland – Why I love it. Part 1” – by Annette

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Saturday 07 February, 2015 by Uncle Spike

Following my own brief look back at visits to bonnie Scotland in days gone by, I’m delighted to to introduce a very special Guest Writer for this next month. Annette, from My Aberdeen Garden is both a regular follower of Uncle Spike’s Adventures, and even better, a resident of Scotland, so who better to share a real insight to that most beautiful part of the world. This promises to be a real treat, with a mini-series of life in Scotland. Enjoy…. SPIKE

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Scotland – Why I love it (part one)

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I wasn’t born here. In fact, I have no claim to Scottish ancestry unlike many of our overseas colleagues. However, I have lived here in Aberdeen for over 30 years, so when Uncle Spike asked me to write a guest post on this country, I felt well enough qualified. It took me a while to collect enough photographs without our friends and relations grinning inanely at the camera, but it was fun.

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We, that is my husband Mike and I, and our three children have lived in Aberdeen on the East coast of Scotland since 1983. We moved up here from England for Mike’s work in the oil and gas industry. This work has funded many wonderful holidays all over the world, but at the end of the day Scotland is where I would choose to live.

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THE RIVER DEE AT GLEN TANAR

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Aberdeen is on the East coast of Scotland and is situated between two large rivers, the Don and the Dee. The city currently takes its name from the River Dee, with the prefix ‘Aber’ meaning mouth of.

I am going to take you on a tour of some of the favourite places we take any visitors who make it this far up the country.

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We will start by driving north of Aberdeen to Balmedie beach. This has to be one of the best unspoilt beaches in the country. It has miles of sandy beach backed by wonderful dunes covered in marram grass. You may have heard of it since Donald Trump has recently built his controversial golf course nearby.

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We used to take our children here quite a lot when they were young.

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Oh, the excitement of finding the wooden walkway from the car park to the beach. It mostly doubled up as a train track. Imagine us, three toddlers in tow, choo chooing all the way to the sea loaded up with beach mats, flasks, blankets, cameras, cricket bats, buckets, first aid kits, sandwiches, not to mention a hot water bottle or two!

The weather was rarely hot enough to play in the sea, but they used to love playing in the dunes instead:

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– sliding down the sandy slopes on their bottoms; nowadays those plastic sledges are perfect for the task.

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– jumping off the tops of the dunes into the soft sand at the bottom . .

– playing hide and seek. .

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and best of all . . .

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– pretending they were explorers in a strange land. The pristine, ever changing sand, blown by the strong on-shore winds makes it look as if you are the first person ever to discover each strange new landscape.

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We go less often now, but it is still a wonderful place to visit for the young and the not so young ; the magical views and vistas are still there, though some of the woodwork is beginning to show its age.

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On the way back we often stopped at the Udny Arms at Newburgh, famous for the wonderful “Sticky toffee pudding“. You can get this dessert in most places now, even the supermarket, but the Udny Arms was one of the first to serve it. It is the most wonderful caramel flavoured sponge pudding, best, to my mind, served with ice cream, but opinions are divided on whether cream or even custard are better! However you took it, it was always a great end to the day.

written by: ANNETTE

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I’m Annette, a keen gardener, traveller and blogger living in Aberdeen, Scotland. I have lived in my garden, well not literally you understand, since 1987 with my husband, aka The Traveller, and my three children.

I have always loved gardening but in the early days there were always things getting in the way: Mums and toddlers, gymnastics classes, school shows, taxi runs, you get the picture. Now my children are all grown up and I have recently retired so I have lots of lovely time to tend to my garden and to write my blog. I am also interested in photography so hopefully you will see my photos improve as my blog matures, rather than deteriorate as I mature!

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this first in the mini-series on my perspective of life in the Aberdeen area.

Annette

You can visit my blog at https://myaberdeengarden.wordpress.com

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