Spotting in Stonehaven

This clock tower is sported by Stonehaven Town Hall, a lovely C19th building with this spectacularly Wren/Hawksmoor style baroque tower which looms over the town.

Stonehaven is one of my favourite places, a picturesque fishing village just south of Aberdeen. There are nice pubs around the sandy harbour full of boats, where we took the in-laws for lunch.

There is also lots of interesting shopping. My favourite shops are:

John Briggs Persian Carpet Specialist (a wonderfully exotic shop in a historic building, full of lovely carpets amd textiles from Turkey and Iran.)
Dunnottar Wines and Spirits (unusual selections of micro-beers, wines, champagnes, gin, whisky etc. Friendly staff and free tastings.)
E Guilianotti Sweets (proper old fashioned sweetshop with lovely historic interior.)

Fighting Fit for Forty

First, apologies to any lovely readers who are already over forty.

Secondly, I know I'm not actually forty until year after next but, as Sally says in When Harry Met Sally...'But it's out there!'

Inspired by the many superfit people I know (including my awesome brother who runs marathons in the American wilderness) I decided to fight back, rather than sitting on the couch, feeling feeble and moaning about my mild asthma, lack of energy etc and generally declining depressively toward the big 4-0.

Running is really hard for me, but already I can breathe better, look better and enjoy being out in the fresh air. I'm only on week 3, but I have (always a reckless optimist) signed up for a 5K in September.

I would like to thank all the people who have supported me in starting this scary thing, especially my husband Alistair, my friend Fiona and my brother Tim.

Blog Twinning

This post is twinned with my better half's awesome blog Pointless Ephemera. Far from pointless, it covers cocktails, planes and scale modelling (mostly, and in no particular order.) Try it, you'll like it.

This is a bottle of Luxardo, a weirdly retro sour cherry spirit, popular in early cocktails from the 20s and 30s. We found it in my favourite deli Valvona Crolla in Leith Walk, Edinburgh which offers all things Italian.

I assume the bottle is straw wrapped for transport and it reminded me of all those straw covered Chianti bottles you got in 1970s Italian restaurants. Do you still find those at all? People used to put candles in them and the wax dribbled down the sides....