Transformation and the River Don

There is just something about large bodies of moving water that becomes even more magical when the light around you is changing. For me they are magical places that speak in poetry and motion. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow said that 'my soul is full of longing, for the secret of the sea' and that in speaking the truth about the sea we can't leave out the poetry. And seeing as I am not much of a poet I thought I would give photographing the River Don as it began transforming a try.  

A sneaky peak

For those of you that know me and have some knowledge of my trusty Sony laptop - you will not be surprised to hear that I am struggling to get the old gal to charge again. For those of you who are not acquainted with the situation you may be wondering why on earth I would refer to a not exactly reliable laptop as 'trusty'. Well let's just say that personal experience has shown me that when technology is failing you it never helps to shout choice words, shake it or throw it out the window. Instead I go with the route of lovingly trying to resuscitate it back into a working state with what I hope are comforting words, despite the fact that I want to toss it across the room with a force that would make even Sebastian Vettel's Red Bull F1 car jealous.

Anyway the whole point of this little sidebar story is to explain my lack of blog posts and having only one photograph to put with this post (which I am typing on my very kind sister's laptop). My currently not-charging laptop, which has all my downloading and editing software on it, has put a spanner in the works to put it mildly as I do have tons of photos to post from Dunnottar Castle and a sunset at the River Don. So for now my loving technique does not seem to be doing the job and outside reinforcements may be needed.

Luckily in the few minutes that I did manage to get my laptop charging I quickly jpeged a photo that I took at the River Don this last week. So here you go a sneaky peak of photos to come, I hope you like it!

The River Don rises in the Grampians and flows eastwards through Aberdeenshire to meet the North Sea in Aberdeen, Scotland. 

It's official a beach bum career choice is only for those in warmer climates

So usually when you live somewhere near the ocean and you are umemployed you can always fall back on the career path of being a beach bum. Although I hear the pay is lousy the job satisfaction is extremely high especially if you love the beach. Hence it was with a hopeful mind that yesterday I decided to take the five minute walk down the road to the seaside.

I spent roughly two and a half hours walking along the beach front only to discover that it is official a beach bum career choice is only for those in warmer climates! By the time I had gotten home, despite wearing about four layers of clothing and wellingtons to the beach, I could no longer feel my legs. Honestly on the stretch of road home I poked my finger into my thigh and nothing......I didn't feel a thing! So I tried a good old fashioned leg slap. Barely a tickle of sensation. By now people were starting to look at me funny as they walked by so I decided to hurry on home before the men in white coats came to look for me. 

The good news that came out of my walk is that today I am back on the job hunt and despite risking frost bite taking my fingers (yes I only have fingerless gloves...I know...silly right but I like to be able to feel the buttons on my camera)  I did manage to get some nice photos of the Aberdeen seaside.

So Enjoy!

A view towards the Aberdeen city centre from on top of a hill near the golf driving range. Actually there are the most entertaining signs on this hill as well which I will be posting up in my next post.

If you turn your back to the ocean from on top of the hill you look over this grave yard that seems to go for quite a distance.

The Aberdeen Promenade is quite busy even in winter. It may not look llike it in the photo but I passed numerous joggers and dog walkers while exploring the beach.

 Another view of the promenade.

 The beach in Aberdeen is an amazing cross between the lovely sandy beaches that I am used to visiting in South Africa and the pebbled beaches that the UK is known for. I say that it is a cross between the two as most it is sandy like the photo above but in some sections there are large build ups of pebbles.

 Ok so most of you are probably thinking what does she mean by sections. Well if you look careful at one of my promendae photos you will see rows of wooden columns like pictured above going out into the ocean. This divide the beach into what I have called sections.

 Once I had walked all the way to the River Don I could go no further without a boat unless I was prepared to swim across - which for the record I was not. I stumbled across the part of the river that the birds apparently love as you can tell by their numbers.

 Six seagulls fly overhead while they keep a watchful eye for any fish near the surface.



 The Bridge of Don

The river has a beautiful s-bend before it flows out to sea.

And just to make sure that I don't lose hope and remember that God has a plan I turned around from facing the sea just as the sun burst through an opening in the dense grey cloud that had covered my day. Reminding me that no matter the grey or the cold there will always be blue skies again.