a short trip to the Aberdeenshire coast

We are back from a short trip to the east coast, a few miles south of Aberdeen. We stayed in an apartment in Gourdon, a small coastal village. It is described as picturesque but I am not convinced. There is a lot of pebble dash, which is not pretty. Pebble dash for those of you not familiar with it is a type of roughcast, with aggregate (the pebble) thrown onto freshly applied mortar. It is often a drab somewhat brownish colour. We live in a pebble dash house, and I often dream of painting the house a pretty colour. Pink preferably but white would be ok, too.  Of course, beauty is in the eye of the beholder and pebble dash does well in our ever changing weather. Talking of weather, we arrived in Gourdon on the rainiest day in July. It was awful and the drive was awful, too. And tiring. We found our address easily and it was not promising from the outside. The apartment however was beautiful, over two stories and right on the sea, not even a footpath between the house and the North Sea. It was comfortable, warm and well equipped. The sound of the waves was quite soothing, although I did worry it might become annoying. It didn’t. The views were stunning, tides coming and coming and so many birds! If only I had remembered to bring binoculars and camera. There was a lovely path going from Gourdon to the next village, Inververbie. I ran there and back once but mostly we walked along the path with Jack, taking in the views and enjoying the gentle breeze. Yes, the weather turned perfect!

The main reason for visiting coastal Aberdeenshire was to help Annie find a place to live. She wants to stay in north Aberdeen, in easy commuting distance to Balmedie, where she will work. We viewed two flats on Tuesday and two on Thursday. I went to see one by myself as the times were overlapping. This is the flat that Annie successfully applied to rent. I am now a little anxious that she will hate it… but of the three flats I viewed, this was the best. She also booked a holiday let to bridge the gap between her starting date at work and the first day of her flat lease. Fingers crossed all the paperwork will be signed off soon. There was a fair amount of stress involved, and plenty of bickering but all is well that ends well. 

Annie showed us her place of work and we visited the local beach with stunning huge dunes. There were loads of wind turbines off shore, and we spotted a few helicopters on their way to the North Sea oil rigs.

Our stay was not all business, there was fun, too. We visited the RSPB Fowlsheugh nature reserve near Stonehaven, where we found breathtaking cliffs with thousands and thousands of birds. Their website mentions 130,000 breeding seabirds. We saw guillemots and kittiwakes and a grand total of two puffins. There were loads of chicks on precarious tiny ledges on the cliff face. I’d hate to be a bird parent on a cliff like that. Again, a shame I didn’t bring my camera, or binoculars… The noise was astonishing, as was the stench. That was noticeable before we were even close to the cliffs. Stingy. I would like to go back at some point and spend a bit more time watching birds and definitely with my binoculars. 

Stonehaven was quite quaint, with its fair share of pebble dash. Some excellent independent shops, including a butcher with lots of other groceries, too. We found a fantastic Spanish coffee place and spent a fortune on nice coffee and Spanish snacks. It was absolutely worth it. Richard explored the country lanes by bike and spotted a place where we could get fresh vegetables. It was a small holding with an astonishing variety of produce, a really big vegetable garden, and all surrounded by flower beds. Gorgeous. We met Geordie, the smallholder. He was very elderly and a bit frail but full of energy and enthusiasm. We bought courgettes and fresh broccoli, potatoes and two jars of strawberry jam. I made courgette fritters for dinner and we ate those with boiled buttery potatoes. Simple but delicious. The offspring were not overwhelmed I don’t think. 

The Gourdon pub was a nice surprise. The menu was simple but not boring and everything was prepared fresh on the premises. Even the pizzas were made in house, with fresh dough and a delicious tomato sauce. The fish was fresh and tasty, too. It is called the Harbour Inn in case you are visiting the area. 

Now we are back home and after a bit of cleaning, all is well. James stayed at home because he is on work experience. He is not best known for cleanliness or tidiness…. But it was not a bad as back in 2017 when Sam stayed at home while we were away. That was memorable. James did manage to break the ceiling light fitting in the living room. I think it might be best not to find out how.

I spent the day quilting my Ice Cream Soda quilt, version two. I am running out of thread so will have to finish that next weekend, when I have more. 

Thanks for visiting 😊