Why do dunes never look quite so steep in photos as they are in real life? They are certainly at their steepest when you are only a third of the way up–with a small child in one arm and too many snacks and too much water in the other–wondering whether you should cut your losses, slide back to the bottom, and find an alternative route. This particular dune is a favourite of ours at Balmedie Beach which is about 20 minutes drive away. We often go to the beach just beyond this one because of its gorgeous and frightening population of seals, but we never regret a good play on the dunes, a fossick about the estuary, or fish ‘n’ chips in the playground at Balmedie.
However, at this time of year, we make a trip out especially to pick elderflowers. They grow all over the city and there are countless on our street, but the first year I made elderflower champagne we picked them at Balmedie and now it is lodged within tradition. While their cat-pee fragrance can be smelt about the city now, it turns out it is still a little early for them on the coast. Oh well… best plan on another trip out soon. This is a recipe similar to how I make it. (I have never needed to add yeast). While it takes at least a month in Aberdeen to ferment, I made it one summer in New Zealand, and it was just a few days before the bottles were fit to burst.
Finally, I loved these gardening tips… not so much about gardening, but being/moving in a garden. Numbers 8+10 are my favourites!
Last week was the fourth week in a row that my 1-year-old was ill with one thing or another, and the second that I was. It was partly that and the consequent lack of sleep that made me take a break from blogging. The last few weeks have felt like we are simply surviving and really not doing anything much else… and this has led to thoughts of ‘OMG what will I write about in my blog this week? Such a dull and yet somehow stressful life’. However, when I look back through my photos, I realise that although we have been much slower than usual, we have done some beautiful things that are worth remembering. And when we haven’t done anything, there have still been beautiful moments to appreciate. It feels somewhat disingenuous or misleading to only write of the nice things in my life… but I end up boring even myself if I focus on the difficult or even humdrum things of life. But I realise that this is a choice that moves me closer to the ‘curated life’ kind of blog… and that kind of grosses out the huge part of me that wants to be authentic. It’s not that I am not showing you true things… I am… but there’s a lot you are not seeing, too. But you know this! Anyway, why am I writing about this internal conflict? I guess just to remind myself that a part of why I write this blog is 
