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| From another age and surrounded by the North Sea on three sides. Romantic, historic Dunottar Castle near Aberdeen, Scotland |
Greetings from crazy-weather Britain, where we have oscillated between record hot May temperatures (around 27-33ºC for over a week) and lower than usual spring temperatures, getting close to overnight frost on a couple of days. Deciding what to wear each day has become quite the adventure.
Prior to all this weather madness, about a month ago we found ourselves unexpectedly driving 800km to Scotland’s third largest city, Aberdeen.
Close friends visiting from Australia, who had been on Shetland for a couple of days, had a medical emergency that resulted in a trip by air ambulance to Aberdeen. Thus it was that, after a few days of waiting to see what would be most helpful, we jumped in the car and headed north to Scotland.
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| Union Terrace Gardens in Aberdeen’s city centre (His Majesty’s Theatre in background) |
I was excited to see Aberdeen as I’d never been to that part of the country before, and naturally we were very anxious to meet up with our friends and offer any assistance that we could.
We arrived to a gorgeous, sunny afternoon in Aberdeenshire, having skirted past Birmingham and shimmied between Liverpool and Manchester, then passing through Glasgow and finally Dundee. The temperature was, as expected, a bit chillier than in Ledbury, but as regular readers will know, this could only be a positive in my books!
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| Spring sunshine in Aberdeen city centre |
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| Our hotel - The Atholl, Aberdeen |
Aberdeen is a reasonably affluent place, and this is mostly due to it being the UK’s hub for North Sea oil and gas (it’s twinned with Stavanger in Norway). In recent decades traditional industries such as fishing, textile mills, shipbuilding and paper-making have made way for technology in electronics design and development, research in agriculture and fishing and, of course, oil. The city sits on the rivers Dee and Don, and the area is thought to have been settled for around 6,000 years. The current population is around 230,000.
A very attractive type of grey granite was mined for several hundred years in Aberdeenshire and this is evident in the architecture of the city. This stone contains a high level of mica, which gives it a bit of sparkle. Plus, the Scots do love a turret - they are everywhere! I imagine that in the depths of a Scottish winter the abundance of grey stone might make for a gloomy atmosphere, but on a sparkling spring day it was aesthetically very pleasing.
Our hotel was in one of the nicest parts of the city fringe and we were fortunate that our visit coincided with all the cherry trees and rhododendrons being in bloom. The residents of that area appear to be house-proud, with most of the front gardens beautifully maintained.
We spent a day wandering around Aberdeen’s centre, visiting shops, cafés, bookstores, parks and monuments. Because of the oil industry there are lots of international dining options and we enjoyed a very nice meal with our friends at a Turkish restaurant one night, and at an Italian place the next.
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| Tollbooth Tower, part of the Aberdeen Town House municipal buildings |
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| One of the leopards that decorate Union Bridge in Aberdeen. They were designed by artist Sidney Boyes |
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| A reminder to look up occasionally, when exploring a new city! This fabulous modernist sculpture was above the entrance to a residential complex on South Mount Street in Aberdeen |
A further day was taken up exploring beyond the city, with our first destination a 30-minute drive south of Aberdeen.
I’d long wanted to visit Dunottar Castle in its incredibly romantic, remote position on a headland, surrounded on three sides by the North Sea. Wow! Most definitely not a disappointment, and even as ruined castles go it was very well presented in terms of its history. The structures that remain are mostly 15th and 16th century, though there have been buildings on the site since the 5th century.
We happily spent a good couple of hours ooh-ing and aah-ing over the views and imagining the discomfort of life in a medieval castle on Scotland’s northeast coast…
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| Azure waters viewed from one of the ruins at Dunottar Castle, Aberdeenshire |
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| Dunottar Castle near Stonehaven in Aberdeenshire, somewhat dwarfed by the rocky headland on which it was built |
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| Section of ruins at Dunottar Castle, Aberdeenshire |
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| A more extensive view of the ruins at Dunottar Castle on Scotland’s northeast coast |
The afternoon was spent at Fyvie Castle, 45-minutes northwest of Aberdeen. Not really a proper ‘castle’, though some parts of the building date back to the 13th century. We were lucky enough to be in time for a one-hour tour of the interior, with a guide who clearly *loves* her job - she made the story of the Preston, Seton and Gordon families fascinating and entertaining.
Fyvie also has extensive grounds, including a huge walled garden that is currently a work-in-progress restoration; it’s laid out in a pattern to mirror the plaster ceiling in the castle's Dining Room. The garden was a little bare still, in the chilly temperatures of Scotland in mid-spring, but it was clear to see the vision and I’d love to return in a year or two when the garden is more established.
We can recommend the small on-site café at Fyvie Castle, which is super cosy and offers delicious food and drink. We all warmed up with a fabulous lentil soup.
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| The entrance to Fyvie Castle, near Turriff in Aberdeenshire |
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| Fyvie Castle, Aberdeenshire |
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| Fyvie Castle had so many beautiful objets throughout the house |
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| The Great Hall at Fyvie Castle, Aberdeenshire |
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| A gorgeous still life in the kitchens of Fyvie Castle |
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| Frames in Fyvie Castle’s walled garden - should look amazing in a year or two! |
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| Stone building inside the walled garden at Fyvie Castle |
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| A rear entrance to Fyvie Castle |
The following day we packed up and made the nine-hour drive back to Ledbury, with our friends along to be house guests for a few days, albeit slightly later than originally planned. Despite the unfortunate circumstances, an impromptu 1,000-mile (1,600km) round trip turned into a real highlight of the spring, made most enjoyable of course by being able to spend time with dear friends whom we only see every few years. They left us to spend a week in the nearby Cotswolds, and one evening we scooted over there to join them for dinner at a very nice pub.
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| Not something you usually see, hurtling along an English motorway! I think this was somewhere between Penrith and Kendall |
Aside from our unanticipated jaunt to Aberdeen, it has been a busy spring, with Kevin continuing to work down at Frensham until mid May. As noted in a previous post, I’ve loved the opportunity to regularly see friends in Surrey and also nip into London for the day on several occasions.
Over the past few years Kevin and I have been fortunate enough to see Norwegian pop trio KEiiNO perform several times at London’s most famous gay nightclub, The Vauxhall Tavern. KEiiNO came close to winning Eurovision in 2019 (they won the public vote) and they’ve continued to record and perform together ever since. For several years they participated in the annual Eurovision tour, wherein former competition acts perform in a group concert across many European and UK venues. This year KEiiNO quietly distanced themselves from Eurovision, without actually making any statement about the reason - which must surely be the EBU’s decision to allow Israel to continue to participate despite being perpetrators of genocide in Gaza. Some of you wlll be aware that we, too, decided this year to boycott Eurovision, which was a very painful decision to make.
I have not missed a Eurovision since Australia first started broadcasting the show in 1983. Eurovision has always been one of the social highlights of my year, usually joining friends to celebrate. Since moving to the UK 11 years ago we have hosted many Eurovision parties at our place.
We considered boycotting the competition last year, due to the conflict in Israel. On the night, we sort of wished we had. The flagrant vote-fixing in favour of Israel was horrifying. Israel’s song entry was - at best - inoffensive. There is NO WAY the purported public vote represented the actual popularity of the song and you could see the shock on people’s faces as Israel’s entry was somehow placed second. Do YOU know anybody who voted for ‘New Day Will Rise’ by Yuval Raphael? No, of course you don’t.
All this rhetoric about Eurovision being ‘non political’ is rubbish. Russia was booted out in 2022 after its invasion of Ukraine. Yet the EBU argues that Israel - a state internationally acknowledged to be committing ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people - should be allowed to compete.
I’m not sure the competition will ever fully recover from this debacle, even if they do end up banning Israel from future participation. One of the most appealing aspects of Eurovision has been its very European-ness, represented by acts sometimes endearingly kitschy, sometimes gloriously representative of European folk traditions. I understand why Australia was granted special permission to participate in the special 60th anniversary competition. That was a nice gesture, and a reward for decades of loyal viewership by Australians. However I never agreed with my home country being permitted to actually compete. It’s EUROvision, after all. And having cracked open the door to Australia, a couple of years ago the EBU made the baffling decision to allow non-participating countries to vote in a ‘rest of the world’ category for the public vote.
So that’s it - until such time as Israel goes, I’m out. It’s the end of an era for me.
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| I made my feelings clear on social media platforms last year, after the EBU handed down its decision to allow Israel to continue participating in Eurovision 😡 |
Anyway, we planned our jaunt into London so that for once we’d have time to explore the area around Vauxhall and Pimlico before the KEiiNO gig, as well as squeezing in a cheeky drink in The Rose, followed by a quick supper at another pub, The Black Dog (recently in the spotlight due to it being referenced on a Taylor Swift album, though we’ve been going there for years). It was a lovely spring evening and we did a walking loop from Vauxhall Bridge up to Lambeth Bridge and then back to Vauxhall.
As always, it was a really fun night and it only took us about 50 minutes to drive back to Frensham.
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| Waiting for KEiiNO to go on-stage, at the Royal Vauxhall Tavern |
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| Fred, Alexandra and Tom, collectively known as Norwegian pop sensation KEiiNO - at the Royal Vauxhall Tavern in London |
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| An avenue of graceful plane tree boughs along Victoria Tower Gardens South, heading towards Lambeth Bridge |
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| View of Vauxhall Bridge from Pimlico (MI6 building on the left - headquarters of Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service) |
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| For the well-heeled, Riverwalk Apartments in Pimlico - right on the Thames, next to Vauxhall Bridge |
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| Front (above) and back (see photo below) views of a Henry Moore sculpture in Pimlico, next to Vauxhall Bridge - Locking Piece (1963-4) |
I mentioned briefly in an earlier post that in mid March I had nipped into London for the latest Wes Anderson exhibition at the London Design Centre. That day also gave me an opportunity to explore the Chelsea and Pimlico areas a little more thoroughly than previously. Truly, some of the boutiques and restaurants in that part of London are sooooooo incredibly opulent. It’s another world.
Please excuse the numbers in the top right-hand corner of a few of the shots below; I somehow managed to permanently delete those photos from my library, and had to take screenshots from an Instagram post back in March!
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| Poster for the Wes Anderson exhibition at London’s Design Museum |
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| Just a couple of kids, with their first film Bottle Rocket being shown at the Sundance Film Festival, in 1993: Owen Wilson (left) and Wes Anderson (right). |
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| Photo of the director and his muse, on the set of Asteroid City (2023): On the left, the gorgeous Scarlett Johansson. On the right, Wes Anderson |
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| Costumes and props from Wes Anderson’s second film Rushmore (1998) |
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| *swoon* Candid Polaroid of Adrien Brody on the set of 2007's The Darjeeling Limited, one of my favourite Wes Anderson films |
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| Springtime in London’s exclusive Chelsea. A whole avenue of magnolias! |
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| Imagine being able to afford one of these gorgeous townhouses in Dove Place, just near the Chelsea Barracks |
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| The superb art deco building that houses Arket, a Nordic design and lifestyle hub - on The King's Road in Chelsea |
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| Chelsea Old Town Hall, with confetti remnants from a marriage ceremony! An endless list of celebrities have tied the knot here, including Mick Jagger & Bianca Pérez-Mora Macias, Judy Garland & Micky Deans, Pierce Brosnan & Cassandra Harris, Hugh Grant & Anna Eberstein, Wallis & Ernest Simpson (!), Sharon Tate & Roman Polanski and, very recently, Dua Lipa & Callum Turner |
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| Newson's Yard, a former 19th century timber yard, recently transformed into a glam shopping arcade on London’s Pimlico Road |
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| Window display of one of the swanky interiors stores in the Pimlico / Chelsea neighbourhood |
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| Bronze sculpture The Head of Oscar Wilde on The King’s Road in Chelsea - Eduardo Paolozzi (1998). It’s been criticised in some circles for emphasising Wilde’s social downfall, rather than his creative genius |
We’re off to Norway for a family wedding shortly, which we are very much looking forward to, not least because I have checked the forecast and we are guaranteed cooler temperatures than here!
Not long after our return, Lesley arrives for her (usually) annual petsitting tour of the UK and as always I am so excited to be able to spend time with her over the summer. We already have open gardens, churches and a fancy afternoon tea at a historic house in Gloucestershire lined up!
Until next time,
- Maree xo
