6th October

      

Hi, have not had much to say this week don't know why but have not been able to think up anything new to say. We have have our normal week with the addition of a visit to Cupar in Fife to visit the Art Club Exibition. What a wonderful afternoon we spent looking at all the paintings the standard was of the highest we have seen.  If you ever see a your local art club having an exibition pop in I am sure you will be surprised by the talent that is out there.

                             

Today Stuart and I are celebrating our 44th wedding anniversary. It does not seem possible that the time has gone so quickly you wonder where it has all gone. So I would like to take the opportunity to wish Stuart a Happy Anniversary again and to thank him for all those wonderful years we have had together. I know he will read this it might be next week however as he is inclined to get caught up with all his bird reports etc. so whenever I hope you had a nice day dear.  Special meal planned tonight so I had better go and get on and we might ven have a little drink.  Have a good evening, Love and take care.

                                                     

 

                                         

                                                            

October

    

        

                                       Brown October brings the Pheasant,

                                       Then to gather nuts is pleasant.

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Good Morning, I hope you are all having a good Sunday. Been raining very hard here this morning but seems to be brightening up a bit now. Nothing very much planned today other than a big basket of ironing to do this evening while watching the soaps.Yesterday I went behind the shed and retrieved our bird table and gave it a good scrub ready for the winter it was covered in moss and lichen. It was all nice and dry by teatime but now it is soaking wet again.  We were watching an episode of Midsomer last night that we taped the night before we went away on holiday. What a difference watching it with all the ads. taken out, I find that during the second hour of a two hour programme that the ads. seem to get more numerous and I get fed up and want away to my bed. We are early bedders here, it was a habit we got into when Stuart worked in Ediburgh and had to be up at 5-45am we have never been able to break the routine so at the back of ten we are both ready to climb the stairs.
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While we were on holiday last week we went to visit a place called Spey Bay, it is along the coast from where we were staying.  We knew it was a good bird watching spot and thought it might be worth a visit. When we arrived there were loads of people all looking out to sea and cheering and you can imagine it seemed very strange. We thought being us that there may be a special bird in but no it was too noisy for that.  We got out of the car camera at the ready to see what all the fuss was about.  We walked over towards the beach and then we saw the spectacal, it was Dolphins, loads of them jumping out of the water very close to the shore as it was high tide and seemingly we had timed it perfectly.  It was wonderful to see, there must have been a pod of about 15 Dolphins. We have looked for them before in the Moray Firth but never seen one so this was a real treat.  I tried and tried to get pictures but it is very difficult as by the time the camera has clicked they have gone under again so sorry I maybe should have put my camera on video mode but I did not think about it till much later.  Thats me for today have a good day. Love,

 

                                               

                                           

  Have found a new picture of the Lesser Yellowlegs for my Bird Watching Diary. 

                http://journals.aol.co.uk/jaymact1/JoansBirdwatchingDiary/                

Friday's Musings

                   

Good Morning, Friday again the week has just whizzed by. All alone this morning Stu off doing his art me trying to catch up with other journal. That said I have just finished an entry in my Birdwatching Diary here's the link:
http://journals.aol.co.uk/jaymact1/JoansBirdwatchingDiary
It's not a very nice morning here its raining again that's the third day this week so am glad we choose last week for our break. While we were away we visited a place called Cullen (the home of Cullen Skink) now what is that you may ask, well it is a fish soup.  Our son raves about it but we had never tried it.  As we were sitting on the beach at Cullen I said to Stuart if they have that on the menu while we are here I am going to try it. Low and behold that very night there it was Cullen Skink for one of the first courses. We both looked at one another and laughed. When the waiter came we both ordered it.  It is absolutely fabulous. Its a creamy soup made with smokes flaked haddock onions and potatoes it was quite chunky but you could blend it if you wanted.  We really both enjoyed it even Stuart who can be a bit picky at times thought it was great. If you key word Cullen Skink there are lots of recipes for it I am going to give it a try sometime.  We were really overfed at the hotel it must be feeding all those healthy east coast fishermen's appetites that makes them give you so large portions. I never managed to clear my plate once while we were there and I felt awful about it but I just could not manage all they gave us. On the morning of our departure they even gave us two eggs with our Scottish breakfast. We both put on a few pound in the time we were away and now we will just have to take them off again. Oh well Que Serra Serra.
Well that's about it for today have a good day Love,

                                    Joan 

 

The Short Break Away

Good Morning, at last I have time to write something about our holiday in my journal, this week seems to have been hectic with one thing or another.
We left home about 10am last Monday morning it was just raining but it was off before we got to Perth so that was great.  We had checked all the different routes on the PC and choose one that we had not thought of and roads we had not been on for many years. After leaving Perth we headed for Blairgowrie (famous for its berry crop in the summer)  the on up Glenshee to The Devils Elbow, this was an elbow in the road years ago and it was very steep but with all the skiing that goes on there now a new road has been built taking the elbow away such a pity as it is not the same now.  We stopped for coffee and a bite to eat at the top of the pass and then carried on down into Breamar.  As we passed Balmoral we gave the Queen a quick wave. As we passed her castle I tried to get a picture of it for you but there is no stopping just now as the family are in residence there is only one place you can see the castle from the road and we were not allow to stop. I was a bit disappointed because of this as it was looking lovely that morning with the sun shining and the royal standard blowing in the breeze. After Deeside we travelled up Donside which is a valley running parallel to Deeside and on northward. We were heading for the coast north of Aberdeen if you look at the weather map it is the flat bit between Aberdeen and Inverness.  We had another stop in a village called Rhynie and had coffee and home baking there. Now Rhynie is a very famous place for all the wrong reasons as it is the first place mentioned when we get our first significant fall of snow the news reader always says the road between Rhynie and Dufftown is blocked this happens usually in November and we then know winter is here.  The roads in this neck of the woods are very twisty with many many sharp bends the like of which I have not seen for a long time. At last we arrived at Macduff and found our Hotel which was right on the front and to put the icing on the cake we had a front room overlooking the sea and the harbour.  We quickly unpacked and headed out for a walk round the harbour. Will leave it there now and download some pictures for you. The lovely graphic I borrowed from Jeannette (Welcometo my Travels) a while back as I thought it was beautiful hope you don't mind Jeannette.  Take care Part two to follow.   Love

                                   Sara made this graphic for me.

Take a look at this.

Please take a look at todays digi picture of today it is absolutely superb.

                                           Love

                                                       Joan.

http://www.steves-digicams.com/daily_dpotd.html

 

 

 

 

Hello Again

                            

Good Morning, just thought I would pop in and say hello after my wee holiday. With all the bad weather around you would maybe have been thinking we had a dreadful time just the opposite we had glorious weather very mild and sunny most of the time and no rain.  We were able to picnic out if we wanted to and sit in comfort and do our bird watching. We really did have a super holiday. Photos will be coming later once I get caught up again with the washing etc. Trying to listen to the Ryder Cup as we don't have Sky Sports so will have to wait till tonight for the highlights program.  Hope you are all well and been  behaving will I have been gone.Will be back later.

                                                          Love

                                                        Joan