This story starts back in November 2023 when we took on the move from Essex to Aberdeenshire arriving to our very frost covered new home in time to experience a pre snowy Christmas and learn the hard way about heating your home with oil...
Or maybe it started a bit further back in May 2023 when we made the decision to upsticks. Lots of people were very surprised, it's not like we had talked in any depth about moving to Scotland with any great decisiveness but that's what happens when the stars align. Well in essence, my husband's company had confirmed that they would remain as remote workers, I lost my Mum, turned 50 and to be honest was a short hop, skip and jump from total breakdown in my teaching job. So when we spent an extended period of time in Fife helping to sort my Mum's funeral and everything that comes with that, I guess I just brought the rest of the family along on my mid life crisis to sell everything up and move.
The story may have even started even earlier...maybe in childhood. With a Scottish mum, our childhood summers were spent in Scotland - I don't think I properly appreciated it at the time, it was staying with Aunts and cousins. Left to our own devices, there were no carefully curated visits or trips and yet slowly visiting felt like coming home.
I did make an initial stab to relocate to Scotland. After graduating I moved to Glasgow to complete my teacher training however securing a permanent full time post at the end was not to be and back south I went.
I met my husband, we had our family and in the midst of this my Mum returned to Scotland. Not to the west coast but to Edinburgh. And the cycle started again, we would pack the car and head north each summer. Although this time it was slightly different, we would often book holiday homes that would fit my Mum, sisters, husbands and children and we explored more of Scotland too...and each new location I would fall a little bit more in love...some people aspire to retire to Spain, I wanted to come to Scotland.
Thus three years ago we stuck a pin in the map of Scotland - we knew where we didn't want to go - and landed on Aberdeenshire, a place we had never really explored. Our only knowledge was from brief visits to my best friend in Stonehaven (these are the same friends we relied on to view the house, and no we didn't see it until the day we moved in!) And now I get to bring you along with me - to enjoy a coffee with a view and a story from the studio.
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