Jolly July in Scottish Meanderings

Well no it wasn't very jolly but the flies are all gone I'm glad to report.

July saw us on the Big Hop Trail - a series of 40 colourful sculpted hares in locations across the north and north-east of Scotland. Organised by Clan Cancer Support and Wild Art to coincide with Clan's 40th anniversary, they're on display until the end of September and each one represents a year of Clan's commitment to cancer support. In September they'll be sold off at auction with proceeds to go to Clan - last time they did it they raised £324,000 which is pretty amazing.

This is the one down at the beach.




A very colourful one in one of our parks.


One overlooking the harbour.


The kids have found many more - Nikki's been keeping track - it's been a fun thing for them to do on days out.


None of us had any holidays away anywhere this year - Nikki & the kids went up to Cullen, a little village on the north-east coast for a couple of nights and had a lovely time as the weather was really good.



Because she was working this summer she only had two weeks off and was planning to go and see her Dad (Boyd) down near Ayr, a 3 hour drive away - we thought of getting an air b&b so that we could take Alfie then I was going to join them and look after Alfie while they went to see Boyd & Bev (who have a very particular Siamese cat hence no Alfies allowed!) but it proved too difficult to organise so was abandoned.

I know I shouldn't judge but it annoys me why Boyd & Bev never make the effort to come up and see her - they've never had a close relationship and he's definitely not a family man but there's only the 2 of them down there so it's a lot easier for them to come up here than it is for Nikki with 3 kids and a dog to go down there - they could even manage it in a day if necessary. I get there may be health issues as they're both in their seventies now but they're still going on holidays as far as I can see and recently managed to go to on a jaunt to Holyrood Palace to a garden party so they're obviously still mobile. Anyway she's going to try going in November instead as we're going to Glasgow for a concert then so she'll just try and add an extra night on to that trip.

And we went to the circus.


Ruari got into it much more this year but Nikki & I were a bit blasé about it all - I don't know if the surprise element is lost by seeing the same sort of acts now every year or what.


My sister, Lorna, was through in Stonehaven, a village about 20 minutes away, for the Stonehaven Folk Festival so I arranged to go through and meet her. The girls were at their Dad's so Nikki & Ruari came with me and we went to a Chorus Competition which was fun then Nikki had to get back at 6 for the girls coming home and I was going to go with her when Lorna suggested staying and she would give me a lift home. She was originally going back home the following morning but had decided to just go that night so as I'm on her route home that worked in well.

We went for an Indian at an Art Deco restaurant -


then the plan was to walk back to the campsite she was staying at but she deviated off the beaten track to a local hotel to see if there was a last music session we could go to and I became a bit undone at that point. I could feel myself flagging at the meal but knew she liked to get to bed early so felt it wouldn't be that much longer before I was home so my body reacted to having to push even further and I felt really sick. This is what I hate about this journey - how inflexible my body is and how I can't just 'go with the flow' any more even though I really want to.

She met an old friend in the bar and stood and talked to him for ages as I wilted behind her not wanting to spoil her enjoyment but feeling like I was about to pass out. Eventually I went to the toilet and I think she saw my white face on the way back and realised all was not well so we made a move but all I could think about was the fact she still had to pack up her camper van when we got back to the campsite so it would probably be another half hour at least before we were on the road! Still it was nice to meet up with her and spend some time with her.

She's always had a camper van for years and often takes off somewhere for a night or a weekend somewhere (in Scotland). When we got the inheritance money from my late Uncle Tommy she treated herself to a new van.


It's quite nifty - I love the independence of it and having everything you need to hand for a night away. When I left her she had decided to pop in on friends instead of going straight home so was away to drive to Finechty, a wee village on the Moray coast roughly half way between Aberdeen and Inverness. She got there about 11 p.m. and just parked down at the harbour, spent the night in the van then was able to see her friends the next morning. So convenient.


Ruari and I are very coordinated these days😊


Finally managed to contact the landscaper again and there's been a bit of progress on the back garden - they've been working on the base for the summer house this week so hopefully by the time I come to write about August there will be said summer house in place!🤞

Just to finish on, I've been stuck inside all day while they've been here and was scrolling on an Inverness Facebook group I'm part of. A couple of folk had put a pic up of the church we went to and also a well used brae at the top of which was my secondary school and at the bottom was our main shop. This had sparked a few memories of the family and the shop which was nice to read after all these years. Someone said she always remembered Mam who was an officer in the Girls Brigade when she was there as 'Mrs. Skinner, the baker's wife' - I'm not sure Mam would have been too chuffed with that!

And an old friend of my brother's remembered this from a visit to the house one day!