Getting close to Christmas and my long-made promise to take Helen to St Andrews this year doesn’t have many days available if I am to fulfil it – so I threw a picnic lunch together and rousted out the ever-willing Loki. Helen didn’t take much persuading to go out and about either. For once she wore thermals under her outer clothes – even though she had no idea where we were to end up —
I didn’t hear any complaints when we arrived in a quiet St Andrews ki- found a handy place to park near the Cistercian Chapel and walked round the north side of the Abbey towards the harbour —
The group of families on the beach by the old chapel were practising their stone skimming in the ancient fish traps – no doubt with a view towards picking a team to compete in the World Stone Skimming Championships held on the old slate Isle of Easdale off the west coast of Scotland every year —
My days for stone skimming are long gone and the main abbey was closed for repair but Helen was delighted just to be there at long last. She was amazed at the what must have been the size of the original building which has no doubt been robbed of most it’s stonework and fought over by many factions for many hundreds of years —
The main site may have been closed due to investigations concerning it’s supposed unsafe condition —
but Helen’s prying eye wasn’t having any of it —
while Loki stood guard over the cannon above the harbour and Helen flashed her camera at every stone in the place —
I admired the wiggly wall and breakwater by the harbour where I had rowed dinghies as a boy —
A wonderful day out with not many people about and the weather stayed mostly clear throughout —
The sun was setting as we drove back through Crieff – about fifteen minutes from home – magic!
from-a-distance 