The Mearns

I eventually got to Inverurie a bit after midnight last night. This morning I met with 25 Social Workers and social care staff for what proved to be a very enlightening session listening to, and discussing , a wide range of insights and concerns that gave myself and the Scottish Government's Chief Social Work Adviser Alan Baird plenty of food for thought.

Then I went to Laurencekirk to open, along with the Provost of Aberdeenshire Jill Webster, the wonderful new Mearns Academy . This is the view from the cafeteria and meeting space looking through the etched windows across the school's wildflower garden to the Howe of the Mearns.

It was a wet and windy day though it cleared later but it was, apparently, nothing compared to the morning two years ago when my colleague Alasdair Allan cut the first sod for the new building, Then they had to take a representative sod inside to the canteen of the old building to be cut as the ground was so drenched outside !