Haddo House

In the county of Aberdeenshire

Please excuse the absence, I’ve been attending my mother’s funeral in Argyll. I hope to back blip.

On Wednesday a.m. CleanSteve and I took the west highland line from Connel Ferry to Glasgow QS, then he went home to Stroud via Edinburgh, which turned out to be a very long journey. I took the train to Aberdeen, which resulted in only one delay of around an hour. More about that another time.

Anyway, back to today. This morning my brother R and I visited the lovely Haddo House, home of the Gordons, the Lord Aberdeen family , now under the auspices of the National Trust for Scotland. We saw many fine paintings, stately rooms, grand objets, and the formal gardens, The image above shows the front of the house, which had an avenue of around a mile in length leading up to it. The entrance is now approached from another angle. We missed the first few minutes of the tour, but found the rest informative. I particularly enjoyed the ecumenical chapel with its barrel-vaulted ceiling and stained glass windows by Burne-Jones. I visited the shop, but realised that most of the things I could have bought in it would have been gifts for my mother, so I left and went back to the cafe for a Tunnock’s caramel log (mother and aunt Jan, both now deceased, would have chosen an Empire biscuit, which is exactly what my brother opted for).

We retuned to Old Aberdeen, where R lives, and after a while I suggested to myself that I visit the beach at the mouth of the river Don. R later joined me, as his work calls hadn’t come through, with the dog, Moss. The wind was bracing and the haar brought a chill to the air, but it was still good to be by the sea. A quick trip to the supermarket on the way back was followed by the Seaton Park route back home, also taking in St Makar’s cathedral.

Since coming back I’ve been lounging around listening to music and doing a crossword puzzle. Tomorrow I start the long journey back to Stroud.