Hello from a very sunny north-east Scotland.
I’m up visiting my aunties at last and I think I mistakenly got on the plane to Spain.
Nothing beats Scotland when the weather is good and today, as the gorse bushes twinkled in the May sunshine with the waves crashing on to the Banffshire coastline below them, I felt like I was in a scene from a film. It almost seemed too beautiful to be real.
I’ve never been to the coastal village of Crovie before and I stumbled on it by accident when going for a little drive along the coast.
I parked up and decided to go for a long walk high above the coastline looking down at the magnificent views. (Sadly I heard later in the week that the The Sneuk path, which runs between Crovie and Gardenstown, has been shut by the local authority until further notice over safety fears, so do be careful if you visit.)
Living somewhere like that must mean you are open to the elements in all seasons and I imagine it being pretty bleak on a stormy winter’s day, but that must be easily forgotten when the sun glistens on the crystal-clear blue water.
I’m sure many of you will have seen photos like this one, and for those of you who haven’t seen Crovie, I hope my photo does it justice.
I sat up on the hill watching the waves and listening to the wonderfully evocative sound of the seagulls and felt very much at one with nature.
At times like these I wonder why we don’t just pack up our bags and move back to this wonderful part of the world.
There are some stunning houses in the surrounding countryside with lots of oversized windows taking in all the sea views. What a place to call home.
Having a view of the sea from your windows is pretty special wherever in the world you are.
I’ve been lucky enough to stay in a few beachfront hotels where you go to sleep to the rhythm of the waves and wake up to them in the morning, and I hope that one day I can do that again.
With the government’s pretty limited list of places we are allowed to go to at the moment, I think those Scottish waves will be proving popular this summer, especially if the sun shines.
I’m here in Scotland for my Auntie Agnes’s birthday. I’m very happy to be able to celebrate with her.
We have all missed so many milestones in the lives of our loved ones, it’s so lovely to be able to mark them again.
No posh lunch at the Ivy restaurant in London for Agnes, but we are just as happy to be going to Celebrations in Turriff just like old times, and how exciting to be eating indoors!
I’m not much of a soap opera watcher, but if I’m going to catch any of them it would be the occasional few episodes of Coronation Street.
This week I did just that and found Sally Carman’s portrayal of a grief-stricken mother extremely moving.
Coronation Street producers are always extremely committed to researching sensitive storylines in detail and the recent story involving the brutal hate attack of Nina and Seb was no exception.
For those of you who don’t watch the show, the attack on these characters was inspired by the real life murder of Sophie Lancaster in 2007, who was attacked for “looking different”.
I don’t know if Sally Carman has experienced grief in real life, but either that or she is a wonderful actress. Her character Abi had me in tears as she discovered that her son had died.
We have all seen many deaths portrayed on TV shows, but for some reason this was particularly emotional to watch. Well done to the whole team. It must have been pretty emotionally exhausting to film.
So watching the Brit Awards from Turriff was a bit different this year and I must say that seeing my lovely Lewis Capaldi presenting Dua Lipa with her Best Album award was a bit strange.
Normally we are all laughing very loudly at Lewis’s jokes, but this year it was all bleeped so much I couldn’t understand a word!
I think we need to hear the unbleeped version to get the gist of it.
I’m looking forward to being backstage at the O2 Arena next year, God willing, and hopefully hearing Lewis, swear words and all.
That will definitely seem like life is back to normality!
Have a good week,
Yvie x
