Of Stonehaven, Sculptures, Stories, Snow, Squirrels, Surprises, Sunrises and …
Birds · Holidays · Lighthouses · Nature · Photography · Resolutions · Seasons · walking · wildlife

Of Stonehaven, Sculptures, Stories, Snow, Squirrels, Surprises, Sunrises and …

sareenmclay

What a way to start the New Year.

New year, new me? Well, perhaps not, but my family and I certainly started 2025 with a new experience!

This was the year. We had talked about it so many times but now, here we were in Stonehaven, on Hogmanay, to watch the fireball swingers at midnight.

Stonehaven Fireball Swingers

My jaw actually dropped as I watched the fifty swingers marching by. Each had a ball weighing between 3 and 5 kg. As they swung it up and around their heads, the flames licked the air sending sparks scattering. The crowd cheered, whistled and clapped. The swingers shouted ‘Happy New Year’ to hearty replies. Any thoughts of the cold, or why we had ventured out into a winter’s night disappeared as we were caught up in the display.

To the skirl of the pipes, the fireballs lit up the street and we could feel the warmth from them as they passed us by.

According to the Stonehaven Fireballs Association, the ‘idea behind the ceremony is to burn off the bad spirits left from the old years so that the spirits of the New Year can come in clean and fresh.’ In years gone by it was also a way to burn old fishing gear so perhaps it was an early way to get some spring cleaning in too!

In an amazing atmosphere, the finale was a superb firework display. Amidst a sea of upturned faces, bobbing pom pom hats, phones held aloft, I joined in with the oohs, aahs and cheers. I kept my phone firmly in my pocket; it’s not often I go to see a fireworks display, and I wanted to enjoy every minute.

Thank you to the Stonehaven Fireballs Association, the police, council, ambulance crews and all the many volunteers and others, without whom this event would not be possible.

Our New Year’s Day walk was a bit different. Along the Stonehaven seafront, we joined dog walkers, families and those clutching coffee cups against the newly arrived freezing temperatures. The slate grey sea hurtled towards us, waves crashing in before thundering off as they receded through the piles of pebbles on the beach. We stopped to watch three majestic shags, or were they cormorants I always have to check, dipping into the icy sea.

Author in front of a lighthouse sculpture. Two sculptures, one a boat and the other a metal love heart with thistles inside and two fish on the top.

And, yet another highlight, I saw my first lighthouse of the year. The sculptures along the bay have been placed there by Stonehaven’s mystery sculptor.

We returned home just in time, as snowflakes began to fall and for nearly a fortnight we lived in a snow covered world.

So it was perfect timing to discover I had a story, ‘Helping Hyacinths’, published in The People’s Friend special winter, cosy fiction magazine!

To the songs of robins, bluetits and blackbirds, I watched as our garden was filled with visitors. A lovely surprise was the woodpecker who became braver each day, hanging onto the fatballs for a good feed. Wood pigeons, chaffinches, great tits, blackbirds, magpies all popped in and, our day would not be complete without the three crows, not sitting on the walll, but strutting across the snow like mini sergeant majors. New to our garden, as far as I know, a volery of long-tailed tits descended, darted around the garden as if it was their playground and tucked into the food.

A thrush had a great feed on the holly berries, glad I hadn’t brought them inside for a Christmas display!

The chattering of the bluetits near the nest box alerted me to their presence there and I saw one disappearing inside so, fingers crossed!

A bluetit chick needs one hundred insects a day. So ten chicks will need one thousand per day and it takes them thirty days to fledge. That will mean thirty thousand insects. Hopefully our log piles and bug hotels will help!

Spot the long red bushy tail!

Keeping the bird feeders filled, I also put out squirrel food as there is a resident couple of reds who live nearby and we had, on occasion, seen them darting along the fences. So to see this wee visitor was a real treat and he or she, seemed very happy feasting in the relative safety of the bird table. as I watched, the squirrel waved it’s tail at times, investigating further I discovered this is to warn off others from their patch.

Once or twice I saw a crow move towards the squirrel threateningly but, once the squirrel built their confidence up, they didn’t seem to hesitate in retaliating.

Today is the start of the yearly RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch. I have my binoculars ready!

So, onwards into 2025. I am still to set my goals, perhaps it is more, SMART targets (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound) I need to think of. Whatever they are, I have had a look back through some of my previous posts and this one ‘Balancing Life‘ and the five ways to better wellbeing, always resonates with me.

Pinks of the sunrise above the trees.
Blue sky with v of pink footed geese.

Listening as the Pink-footed geese fly by and watching a stunning sunrise to start the year.

Happy New Year, wishing you all a very happy and healthy 2025.

… Space!

I have just finished reading: Orbital by Samantha Harvey

I loved watching The New Year’s Day Concert From Vienna, available on BBC iPlayer – with a space themed film by Barbara Weissenbeck during the interval, it fitted in well with my reading.

Gardens, Photography, Reading, Writing and Learning- of course!
bees · Books · butterflies · Flowers · Garden · Happy · Holidays · Inspiration · Latin names · Nature · Photography · Seasons · wildlife · Writing

Gardens, Photography, Reading, Writing and Learning- of course!

sareenmclayLeave a comment

I began this post in the summer. For some reason, I couldn’t get my head around what the thread of it was until I realised, that was the point. This is about meandering.

In gardens that have been specially designed, the aim seems to be to have a winding path. One to deliberately make you slow down and take your time. Along the way, there will be side shoots, leading you to ‘moments of interest’ in the garden. At the end of the path there may be an area that was at first hidden from sight.

I confess to not knowing much about garden design, despite the many I have visited! One designer I have read and heard mention of over the years is Gertrude Jekyll. On a visit to the Holy Island (Lindisfarne) on the North East Coast of England, I was delighted to learn there was a garden she had designed. Oh, how beautiful it is too! Filled with an abundance of summer blooms in a riot of colour, it was an absolute treat to see. Fragrant sweet peas and roses, poppies, daisies and flowering Lamb’s Ears (Stachys Byzantina)amidst others.

Garden designed by Gertrude Jekyll at Lindesfarne (Holy Island).

A long time ago I planted Lamb’s Ears in my garden after admiring them in the walled garden at Drum Castle: the leaves are so soft to touch. So it is with gardens, each one I visit inspires me to do something more with my own. Returning home with renewed determination to try sweet peas again, I think of how amazing their perfume is and how they are so pretty in a posy.

Six-spot Burnet moth

I am a meandering sort of a person, I think. The years have taught me that I do get there, slowly, following paths I choose, often without a clear idea of how it will all turn out but willing to give it a try. Perhaps my way is like the butterflies and moths I enjoy spotting, flitting from one stem to the next but with an overall sense of purpose.

Often I am inspired by others who have followed their own paths. Watching the documentary on the writer Joan Didion, reading about the photographer Imogen Cunningham and Kate Bradbury’s ‘The Bumblebee Flies Anyway’ have set the tone for my summer.

Always one to enjoy a learning opportunity, the talk by Annie Ives on identifying bumble bees for the Scottish Wildlife Trust was right up my street.

Writing this blog has given me the perfect opportunity to use some of the photos of the natural world around us that I love to take. This love of photography combined with writing meant I very much enjoyed running a ‘Scrawl and Crawl’ workshop with SCBWI‘s Karen McDonald at the wonderful Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition at Aberdeen Art Gallery. I am hoping the exercises we did will get me writing!

As ever, the garden provides me with so many opportunities to take photos, it is hard to resist! Here are a selection of September moments. Sunshine, spiders and sunflowers, a white-tailed bee on the Sedum (Hylotelephium) and stunning white anemones.

To see the wild flowers amongst the apples this summer was a delight.

I wondered whether to post this or not, time has run away with me but today, as I swept up piles of leaves to let the grass breathe I thought, why not. Perhaps this is a summer/autumn round up.

Leaving the leaves (!) on the flower beds with the aim that they will break down as a natural mulch, I gathered a couple of bags full to hopefully create leaf mould. Making sure there were holes in the bags, I poured in some water from the rainwater butt and am keeping my fingers crossed.

Outside, in the October sunshine, I heard the honks, quacks and barks of pink-footed geese flying in a ‘v’ formation overhead. As I swept the leaves, a beautiful light green frog moved to hide in between the cracks in the wall. So that was the end of my clearing up. I left the rest for the frogs.

The Fuchsia are still going strong but are there any ‘froggy friends’ lurking underneath the beech leaves?

I am reading:

‘Haddo Reimagined‘ by Rae Cowie and Susan Orr this is a wonderful collaboration between writer and photographer.

Do you have a book recommendation which would be perfect for this time of year?

Birds · Flowers · Happy · Hope · Inspiration · Nature · Trees

Forest Fauna and Flora

sareenmclay
Black Spout Waterfall

Sometimes you are lucky enough to find somewhere magical. Where you feel transported to a time and place of tranquility. In those moments, all else can, surely must be, forgotten to fully embrace the experience.

Black Spout waterfall and wood at Pitlochry is, for me, one such place. It left me filled with wonder and an amazing sense of peace. Perhaps it’s the lushness of the greenery this year. So much rain followed by days of sunshine.

To walk in the forest was to feel the softness of the paths underfoot. To listen to the birdsong: chaffinch, coal tit, grey and white wagtails was to smile at those wagging tails. To feel the soft, velvet of a hazel leaf and to admire tiny newly forming hazelnuts.

To my delight, there were oak trees of every size and shape. I thought of how their burls may be labelled as an ‘imperfection’, and yet their many layered beauty was undeniable. Useful too, they are often sought after by those who work with wood. No two burls are ever the same, with their layers and patterns. How wonderful that, in nature, we celebrate individuality.

New growth, new hope.

There was no way I was going to miss the opportunity to hug a tree. To feel the smoothness of the moss on one side as opposed to the rivulet-like bark on the other. How amazing to consider its lifetime as I stand in silent awe.

It made me think of ‘birch tapping’ where the sap of the birch trees is collected to drink. I thought of all the water running through the tree. Of course, it could have been the water running over the Black Spout waterfall that made me think of this! An excellent viewing platform has been built and, if you carry on further up the path, you come to a beautiful section where there are large flat rocks above the waterfall.

When not hugging trees, I was using my phone to identify birdsong and plants. Wood avens, speedwell as well as cow parsley to name a few. What a complete distraction from everyday life. My visit to Black Spout wood, in such good company too, was a joy.

Twists and turns of life
Who lives in here?
Burl beauty

I am reading ‘Why Women Grow’ by Alice Vincent.

Big Butterfly Count begins on July 12th!

I do love a newsletter. Here are a few I’ve been reading:

Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet Zine

People’s Friend and so exciting for me, they have bought two more of my stories!

Eleanor Mills – Queenager

Stuart White – Write Mentor

Podcast – Dacher Keltner The Thrilling New Science of Awe

Thank you for reading! Is there a place that is special to you or a newsletter you would recommend?

Birds · Flowers · Inspiration · Lighthouses · Nature

A tale of lighthouses, swimming and wildlife.

sareenmclay

A lighthouse, yay! On a spring day filled with bright sunshine, blue skies and a breeze that could bite the ears off you, we walked the short distance from the small Fife town of Elie to the Elie Ness Lighthouse. 

After another bout of covid, and our planned holiday abandoned, it was the perfect way to enjoy some fresh air and (a little bit!) of exercise.

Built on what used to be known as ‘Fish Rock’ in 1908, the engineer was David Alan Stevenson, cousin of the author, Robert Louis Stevenson. The lighthouse was deemed to be necessary as in bad weather sailors couldn’t see the lights on the Isle of May or Inchkeith. 

Crossing the small bridge, I felt as if I was approaching a castle. The tide was out and the black rocks surrounding the lighthouse were smooth: Elie Ness being one of at least a hundred extinct volcanic vents in East Fife.

Sea Thrift
Scurvy Grass

Of course I took the time to check out the wildflowers: Sea Thrift and Scurvy Grass, the latter being a new discovery on my ‘Seek’ App. 

A heron set off on its majestic flight and a skylark’s song accompanied us (thanks to the Merlin Bird App!) as we followed the grassy path along to Lady Janet’s Tower.

Now there’s a story.

This puts wild swimming in a whole new light!

Apparently, Lady Janet Anstruther’s father (or husband) had a changing room built in 1770, on the beach so she could go swimming/skinny dipping at Ruby Bay. Whilst she was in the water, a servant rang a bell in the town so no-one would go near and when she had finished, she had the tower to ‘relax’ in afterwards. 

Now that might tempt me to go wild swimming – the prospect of having a cosy room with a fire to thaw out in after an icy dip!

Lady Janet’s Changing Room

Walking back along the beach, we searched for Elie Rubies (pyrope garnets), didn’t find any but it was worth a try!

Buoyed by our visit to Elie Ness, we travelled along the coast to pop into Pittenweem (lovely wool shop!), Anstruther and Crail. 

As it was such a beautiful evening, we sat outside to enjoy fish and chips in Anstruther with a superb view of the lighthouse and enjoyed walking the harbour wall at Crail. 

Anstruther Lighthouse

What a time to travel around Scotland! Laden boughs of pink cherry blossoms, magnolia trees with their white or pink flower cups, tulips of every colour looking so perfect as to appear almost unreal.  The cheery yellow of the gorse in the hedgerows and the sunshine patchwork of oilseed rape in the fields. Lambs sunbathing. What a beautiful country. 

And finally, isn’t there always a last word? Well, it has to go to this yarn bombed postbox in Elie. Couldn’t resist popping a postcard in.

I am reading (and loving!) ‘Corvus’ by Esther Woolfson – might have popped into Toppings fabulous bookshop in St Andrews!

I recently visited the Louise Bourgeois exhibition at Aberdeen Art Gallery and would highly recommend it, so thought provoking and inspiring.

Have also been inspired by my daughter, Katie’s fundraising for Teenage Cancer Trust as she trains to climb Mount Kilimanjaro in August.

Books · Inspiration · Knitting · Lighthouses · Seasons

Flashes of Light and Inspiration

sareenmclay

It seems appropriate to be talking about light at this time of year, especially since the clocks have been turned back and, well, it has often been pretty dark and stormy.

This summer I was able to fulfil a wish I’d had for a long time, to visit the Museum of Scottish Lighthouses in Fraserburgh with family and friends.

I’ve long been fascinated by lighthouses, possibly as far back as when I was in primary school. I remember reading the story of the three lighthouse keepers who disappeared mysteriously from the Flannan Isles Lighthouse in December 1900. Years later I discovered there had been a poem written about the incident by Wilfrid Wilson Gibson, Flannan Isle.

I realise I am not alone in loving this link between poetry and lighthouses, after all, the author and poet Robert Louis Stevenson was a member of the famous Stevenson family who designed many of the lighthouses around our coasts. (There is a super book about this by Bella Bathurst, ‘The Lighthouse Stevensons’.)

Kinnaird Lighthouse
On top of the world!

The museum is housed beside the Kinnaird Head Castle lighthouse. It’s built right through the middle of a castle that is more than 450 years old. What a fabulous example of finding a new use for a building!

While at the museum we couldn’t help noticing these wonderful knitted yarn bombs and I loved the Bell Rock Flags, hand-embroidered altar cloths made by Jane Stevenson in 1820.

For a very calming moment, here’s a lovely video of lighthouses at night, I promise you, you’ll end up watching it more than once.

This is Book Week Scotland – here’s a couple of quick fun things to do!

Add your choice of book to their Book Week Scotland Map.

Fill in the quick quiz to find out how adventurous you are before reading the wonderful stories about adventure in the Book Week Scotland book.

When the sun is shining and the light is filtering through the trees, it’s a joy to walk through a forest filled with the beauty of autumn’s stunning colours.

Now, does this not just make you want to hug a tree!

If you’re feeling the cold, here’s a link to a post I did on Winter Warmers!

Recommend: Stargazing by Peter Hill

I am reading:

The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Safon, it’s been on the tbr pile for a while!

DO/ HOPE/ Why you should never give up. Gail Muller

Books · Happy · Inspiration · Writing

Sharing the Joy of Quentin Blake’s Illustrations

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Last weekend I had the absolute pleasure of running a workshop in the Aberdeen Art Gallery.

Inspired by the exhibition of Quentin Blake’s illustrations, I organised it on behalf of the SCBWI*. We had such a good laugh, sharing the results of writing exercises and quick-draw illustrations.

To be honest, that was my third time at the exhibition. I loved delving in deeper to study ‘Angelica Sprocket’s Pockets’ and the joy that is ‘Mr Magnolia’.

The exercises were chosen with care. There were writing and illustrating exercises and time to collaborate to create a story from the starter ‘All was well until …’ The fact that everyone felt able to share their work showed me what a fabulous group of creatives I was part of and I really would like to thank everyone that came along for their enthusiasm and willingness to take part in every activity.

I took my time finding resources, such as the bag my Mum had sewn, to fill with items for a writing exercise. I borrowed my daughter’s toy mouse with it’s hidden pocket, my daughter drew a puddle for me to use and I collected pine cones from the garden making me feel I was bringing a whole world to the workshop.

Angelica Sprocket’s Pockets by Quentin Blake

So much time can be spent writing alone, so to share the company of other like minded writers was indeed an inspiration. We all agreed how wonderful it is that many events are now online and accessible. The buzz of meeting up in person can’t be denied though.

This week the Wayword Festival is being run by Aberdeen University so I have a few events booked to enjoy – online and in person!

I am reading: Haarville by Justin Davies and The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O’Farrell

Meeting Maggie O’Farrell at the Lemon Tree in Aberdeen, what a joy!

Podcasts: Frank Skinner’s Poetry Podcast – My Last Duchess

Learn Italian – Joy of Languages (always learning, that’s me!)

Quentin Blake Illustration Exhibitions

*SCBWI Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators