Being Grandparents.

So glad I checked Google to find out if what we were experiencing was normal!  One plea was from someone who was the same age as me, 65, who as she said, "Didnt look it."  I like to think I dont look it, well I do not dress it. But thats probably as far as it goes.

Our eldest daughter and partner came to stay last Wednesday.  With our two grandsons aged 6 and 3.

The Kids loved the Playpark.  All the kids.......

I met them for lunch after they had also hit the Kids Activities at the Lighthouse Museum.

Following which I crashed and chilled in my shedudio.

After an evening of grown up enjoyment including red wine being woken at 5a.m. by 

was not a great experience.  

We then hit Fraserburgh Heritage Centre.  Which is conveniently placed just across the car park to the Museum of Scottish Lighthouses.

It really is an amazing and fascinating place.  Totally run by volunteers.  I learn something every time I go in.

 This is a mock up of driving a rib on the sea, a lifeboat, you press buttons and get the radio speaking to you, engine noises, wowee.

 This train used to tootle up and down the Beach Boulevard.  Moves afoot to return it to there rather than remaining static in the museum.  But hey ho, enjoyed whatever. 

The grandchildren on an old herring fishing boat.  Apparently the hold was smelly.  As it should be.

The three generations found lots of interest.  

The DP and I perused an old map to find the croft our house once was, before being rebuilt, using some of the original granite walls.  But more interesting to us was that it once was within the vast estates belonging to the Frasers late of Cairnbulg Castle.  And there it was on this map dated 1880 something.  

Because of the celebration ? of the first world war there were displays of local heroes.  Including the medals of the grandfather of our butcher.  

I love the fact that they display all these personal mementoes that are important to people you know.....

In the afternoon everyone, but me, went to New Aberdour Beach.  It is a very popular beach with the locals, possibly as it is so sheltered.  In the Summer the Fraserburgh Beach is packed with tourists, golden sands...and clean.  But the locals pile in to New Aberdour with picnics, barbecues.

I have always liked it, but always feel it a tad dour.

The caves are amazing.  Lots of tales around them.

 Rock pools as well as sand.

 Also on the beach, or very near...

 St.Drostans Well.  
  The well is just to the east of the carpark at the base of a hill. St Drostan used the water of this spring to baptise local people and was famed for his miracle cures. St Drostan died at Glenesk in 809AD. His remains were conveyed from Glenesk to Aberdour where they were placed in a stone coffin and long believed to work wondrous cures.


 Despite all this culture, fresh air and fun the grandchildren were still up early next morning.

The DP and I were not.  Well not physically, but the senses surely were.

24 plus hours later just about back to normal.  They have gone home. Bless.

Laid Low.

Had to happen.  Despite banishing the DP to the spare room, I was flattened by an attack of Pleurisy.  I know immediately it is with me and zoom off to get antibiotics.  Two days in bed in agonising pain, but in the antibiotics kick and I am out of bed.  Down the shedudio.

 Above, a very UnCommon Seal.   Spotted at Rosehearty just up the coast from Fraserburgh.

And a stoat running across the road, nearby.

We had our youngest daughter visiting this week.  So she and the Dawn Patroller were off to view other Open Studios and the beautiful country side.

Pennan, above and below.

New Aberdour, one of the caves.

 

Now the above is Tarlair, near Macduff.  An open air swimming pool it was.



Tarlair Swimming Pool opened in 1931 at the base of a sea cliff just outside Macduff in Banffshire (now Aberdeenshire) in Scotland. This outdoor swimming complex was built in an Art Deco style with a main building backing onto the cliffs and changing rooms to its left hand side. It was commissioned by Macduff Burgh Council in 1929, with the architect being John C Miller, the Burgh Surveyor of MacDuff. The contractor for the project was Robert Morrison & Son of Macduff.^[1] Since 2007 it has been protected as a category A listed building. It is considered by Historic Scotland to be the best example of only three surviving outdoor seaside pools in Scotland, the others being at Stonehaven and Gourock.^[2]
The design of the pool was a clever use of pumped sea water to fill the pools, and flooding of the main pool at high tide to flush out the old water. The main pool had a diving board at the deep end and a child’s chute at the shallow end, though both are now missing. The second-largest pool was a boating pool with the two remaining pools being paddling pools.
The complex is now in some disrepair with a mixture of weathering, rock falls and vandalism being the main causes. In 2010, a proposal was put forward for redevelopment of the complex as a lobster hatchery.^[3] In 2012 a small group of local residents in the Macduff community created a "Save Tarlair" page on the social networking site Facebook, which drew the attention of over 7000 followers to the plight of pool complex. A community group "Friends of Tarlair " has since been formed and is working with Aberdeenshire Council to try and find a way forward for the site as a community facility. Wikepedia. 

 Apparently funding is now available.

 

 This how it once was.  Lets hope it is successfully brought back to life.

 

And finally, Macduff also has its very own Bow Fiddle Rock, not as large as the one at Portknockie, but still awesome.

Hope you enjoyed - and that I too come back to life.