Life, Death and Remnants

A day down in the East Neuk. It's been so long since the four of us have had a getaway together that we took an hour or so to sync together again but once we did we were locked in for the day, united in bad jokes, sarcasm, cynicism and a love of the coast and the beasts that roam it.

We found ourselves at the far corner of a deer park, where few other if any visitors were, and spied a deer giving birth in the distance. We stood mesmerised and then the ranger arrived to stand with us and wait, and she talked us through the challenges. This was a Pere David's Deer, endangered, with a limited and weak gene pool. So it was all the more sad when we watched on and realised that the little one hadn't made it. We felt heart sorry for the mum. There was lots of new life to see but we were all still thinking of the beauty and tragedy of a species on the brink way past pur leaving.

We went on to the hoit and toit of St Andrews for a brief pitstop where we laughed at Tess marvelling at the fashionista students and locals. "Why can't Aberdeen dress like this?" She cried. Then on to beautiful Crail, we hadn't been there for years, not since Sam and Tess were toddlers. The sun came on strong and we lost four hours on that wee stretch of coast into the evening rockpooling, beachcombing, fossil hunting, Mickey taking and dancing (Tess). 350 million year old giant centipede tracks!!! Just amazing to see and walk in their footprints. So much treasure, but all the better to be experienced if you have your favourite co-pirates with you.