The bridge goes over the Don River and it is how we get from where we live just north of the Don into the city center.

We walk over this bridge to go to church, to school and to get to the university.

Sometimes, if I’m being very ambitious, I walk over it to go all the way into town or to the beach.

I take friends who visit along this bridge so they can get a feel for what our daily life is like in Scotland, walking back and forth across this river, walking to buy groceries and walking along this river.

I try to remember to snap a photo of friends on this bridge whenever they visit, but sometimes I forget.

On a wet day, the boards on the bridge are slick, but the rain makes the bridge seem brighter somehow.

At night there are lights above the bridge so you can see your path.

The structure of the bridge makes little frames of the river and sky.

In every season, the landscape is different.

Some days the trees and sky are painted with mist.

At the beginning of the year, the river got so high that the bridge was damaged and it has been closed ever since. This month we have all been walking on an alternate bridge that is also open to cars, so we miss our little pedestrian bridge. We’re hoping it opens back up soon!

Years from now, I think this little bridge will be one of the funny details we will all remember from our Aberdeen life.

The post Snapshots of Aberdeen: The Green Bridge appeared first on Alison Chino.

November arrived in Aberdeen all golden and glowing, but today at its close, it is icy and crisp.

I’ve stomped through lots of wet leaves this month, but today the leaves are frozen and crunching beneath my boots.

I’ve driven down to Aberdeen Beach in all sorts of weather this month to wander along the North Sea shore, mostly in shadow as the sun seems to lay low on the horizon all day long this time of year.

Here are a few glimpses of a November of Chasing Daylight on the beach, all bundled up from head to toe.

November 5th, 11am

November 13th, 10:30am

November 13th, 11:15am

November 16th, 3:27pm

November 26th, 1:23pm

I’ve loved framing my days of getting outside by Chasing Daylight this year. Every month has been a slightly varied challenge on the theme of getting outside in the light.

Tomorrow begins a season of wonder. I am finding new ways to celebrate Christmas this year since we will be spending the entire season in Scotland. It’s the darkest month of the year and part of embracing our quiet Christmas for me is that I want to keep on looking for the light in the dark.

So in keeping with Chasing Daylight, I will be looking for Stories of Hope throughout the month of December.

I look forward to sharing a different kind of light in this space over the next month, and of course, I will still walk outside, even in the dark.

The post Chasing Daylight November: Aberdeen Beach Days appeared first on Alison Chino.

Y’all, the sun will set today at 4:07pm.

The weather this time of year in Scotland hurts my feelings. Many days we don’t see the sun at all but just varying shades of gray. Or grey.

Then the gray fades to black before you know it.

Now that we have been through two winters in Aberdeen, I have learned that it takes a lot more than a couple of walks to get me through the next three to four months.

(Like a few good bottles of whisky.)

But getting outside helps.

A lot.

Even getting outside in the rain.

So in November I’m going to head for the beach. Maybe at sunset and maybe at other times.

This is my view of the beach from where I start walking. So I thought it might be fun to take this exact picture every time I go to the beach in November and then compare them. The tide is always changing, as is the color of the sea and the shade of the clouds. Who knows? There might even be a blue sky or two in the mix!

Do you have plans for getting outside when the weather gets colder? We used to always plan a winter camping trip in Arkansas, but I don’t think I have the nerve to do it in Scotland without our pop up camper + space heaters!

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Hello Beautiful Scotland in Fall!

The colors of the leaves right now are my consolation for 4:30 sunsets.

They are AH-MAH-ZING.

Every time I go outside, I take about fifty pictures of trees and leaves.

So here are my twenty highlights from the last ten days or so.

A spot discovered near Aviemore while visiting Cole last week.

Bennachie, one of our favorite hikes in any season.

Yellow Larch Trees in Bennachie.

Even the ferns are changing colors. Bennachie again.

Bennachie.

From Mither Tap in Bennachie.

We’ve had an unusual number of blue sky days lately.

Afternoon light on the larch trees in Kirkhill forest.

I first discovered these golden pine needles in Banff a few years ago. They are so happy to me. Yellow Christmas trees.

This is a forest preserve just outside of Aviemore.

We went on a hike after a big breakfast out at the Mountain Cafe in Aviemore.

Nethy Bridge. (I had a picnic near this spot with my Speyside Sistas last May!)

This trail is near the camp where Cole works in Nethy Bridge.

Just outside of Craigellachie.

A trail near the camp where Cole works.

Walking to church with Simon.

Our neighborhood.

Happy Fall Y’all! I hope you’re enjoying gorgeous colors wherever you are today!

The post Snapshots of Scotland in Fall appeared first on Alison Chino.

An Epic Climb in Northwest Scotland: Suilvan

Epic climb days always start early and end late.

We started walking in low autumn light towards the hulking shadow rising in the distance.

Our goal was before us.

I love walking behind my boys.

And their friends.

We made this climb during October holidays with another family from our church.

Sweet friends who have wanted to climb this mountain for a long time.

Well most of them have wanted to climb it for a long time.

The dad first saw Suilvan over 20 years ago and has been planning to climb it ever since.

But I might have talked the other mama into coming along with us, becausemy girl, Mary Polly, was stateside and I didn’t want to be the only female in the party.

And the day was so gloriously blue and sunny that we could not possibly stay behind.

The approach to Suilvan is really long, so I promised that we could turn around after the five mile walk in if we were too tired for the climb.

But once we had walked the entire road and then the very boggy path to the base of the mountain, we were all in.

We stepped within the shadow of the mountain, and watched as a few little tiny people made their way up to the saddle.

It looked very steep from the bottom, but once we started climbing, it did not feel as steep.

There were definitely some tough spots, with lots of scree. It was hard going, but we slowly made our way up.

Simon stayed ahead of me with the other boys. Little goats.

We gals muddled along.

But when we got to the saddle and rose up out of the shadow to see the other side, we were all aghast at the view.

We had our lunch at this spot, since it was already long past lunch time.

And I needed to take it all in for a minute.

Rest my legs before heading up to the tippy top.

After tuna sandwiches and treats and crisps and tea, we started up further.

We wondered at this wall on top of a mountain.

And every few steps, we looked back to see how far we had come from the saddle where we had lunch.

And we looked down where the drops were long at the narrow bits.

One of the scariest parts was a narrow strip just before the final ascent. You had to skirt around the right side of the mountain with a very steep drop on the right.

Followed by walking another very narrow path that dropped off on both sides.

There was nothing that required ropes but it still made me squeam and shake a little.

After I made it over, I watched Taido bring Simon along behind him.

We were all so glad to finally reach the top.

Where the big boys were already waiting for us.

And the views all around were worth every step.

We stayed for a while. Resting and enjoying the sun.

But soon it was time to head back down.

Going down from a steep climb is always harder for me.

It is scary and I lose my footing. A lot.

Also it always feels way longer to me.

But eventually I crawled my way back to the saddle.

Back down the mountain.

Following Taido all the way.

Through the crazy rock wall.

That we wondered again at.

Before crawling back into the shadow of the mountain, to make the slow descent on creaky knees.

The shadows at the base of the mountain were much longer.

And the way back was all in bog.

And mud.

It took us ages to get back to the old jeep trail.

And back into the sunshine.

The light was fading quickly as we walked the five miles back to the car.

We watched the sun setting before us.

And glanced back occasionally at the mountain we had climbed.

We thought how the sunset from the top must be pretty amazing.

But we were trying to enjoy the pink streaks we could see as we made our legs keep stepping one in front of the other.

It was after 6pm by the time we got to the car and we were so very tired, but so very glad we had come.

Epic climbs produce epic hunger, and we gobbled up the biggest pot of chicken and rice you’ve ever seen before sleeping hard and enjoying that great kind of tired you get from a day of adventuring.

More info on this climb can be found at Walk Highlands.

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Last week we drove further north in the country of Scotland than we ever have before. Past Ullapool and all the way up to Clashnessie Bay. The bay is a little further north than the sleepy village of Lochinver.

We drove miles and miles on tiny roads without seeing any other cars. It was eerily quiet and I loved every minute.

Most of the walks we did were under glorious blue skies.

And we had them all to ourselves.

We walked under the constantly low light, as it seems that the sun has started to hang out on one far corner of the world.

The autumn light makes long shadows no matter what time of day it is and the mountains are only ever sunlit on one side.

But everything is bathed golden.

And you know we chased that golden light all week long.

We climbed a mountain that looks like a shark’s fin.

And ones that are all connected to each other.

We played on beaches.

And on castle ruins.

We hiked above a beach at sunset with thermoses of hot cocoa, tea and a tin of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies.

And we said it was the most beautiful sight we’d ever seen.

Until the sun came up and made pink pillows above our heads the next morning.

And then we waited for the sky to turn blue and hiked above the house where we stayed to view the bay from up high.

And it was newly beautiful. (The house in the far right of the above photo is where we stayed!)

We were told that the Northwest Highlands was wild and wonderful and that we would fall in love with the lochs and glens and mountains.

People in Scotland speak about the West Coast with reverence and sweet sentimental sighs.

Every time we go to a place like this, one that is not covered in any of our guidebooks about Scotland, I feel like we have been let in on a little Scottish secret.

One that is spreading in my heart and growing as wide as the night sky over this bay on a clear night.

I see the Milky Way sweeping through space and two families with heads bent back and arms pointing up. Deep breaths of cold night air.

Then we all go in the house and play a round of games before falling asleep.

Tired legs and full hearts = The best kind of holiday.

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Scotland in September started out in the sunshine.

I had a visit from a very dear friend.

Kelly and I have been friends since we were in elementary school and she has visited me everywhere I have ever lived. She is the sort of friend with whom you can pick up like you have never been apart, which is to say that every moment with her is a gift of comforting familiarity and being absolutely loved.

September 1.

On the first of September we wandered in Edinburgh together under the bluest of blue skies.

I showed her all my favorite spots, stopping in shops and museums and for tea along the way.

September 5.

Next we welcomed our friends Jamey and Ashley, who got the whirlwind tour of Aberdeen and the Shire, including a walk around one of our favorite castles, Drum Castle.

The thistles were still in bloom in early September.

September 7.

On my birthday I walked to a new international women’s gathering and it was so warm outside that I took my jacket off. Unwittingly I dropped it along the way, and someone hung it up for me on the side of the road. I have dropped many scarves, sweaters, gloves and other various things while walking around towns and this was the first time in retracing my steps that I found something I’d dropped. It was like a sweet little birthday surprise.

September 9.

On my Mama’s birthday, I went to the beach to walk under gray skies.

I found this little heart-shaped rock that I’ve kept with me all month long and I pray for her when I touch it inside my pocket.

September 10.

The day after my mom’s birthday is my friend Jermaine’s birthday.

It was a gorgeous day in Aberdeen.

Taido was out of town, so I went by myself to watch the sun set on the beach and be thankful for my friend Jermaine, who is halfway around the world at the moment.

It seemed like this week in September marked the last of the long summer nights. The sunsets started to drop off quickly after this week and soon it started to be dark at dinner time again.

September 12.

A couple days later I was back at the beach with another visiting friend and we could hardly walk for the wind.

It’s crazy to me how this same spot can seem like a completely different world depending on the season, but also in the same week.

September 14.

Walking back to town in mid-September and meeting more women from all over the world.

September 15.

And picking blackberries. A lot.

September 17.

The next bright blue day, I was back at the beach.

At different times of day, the tides draw different patterns in the sand.

No one else in my family really likes going down to Aberdeen Beach as much as I do, so I’ve been stealing away for an hour here and there this month.

At some point, I thought to myself, I might never live only five minutes away from a beach again in my life. So I should go more often. Like whenever I think about it.

And so I have.

I steal away for thirty minutes after I drop one of the kids at a friend’s house.

September 19.

One Saturday, none of the kids wanted to go for a walk. That’s always the case actually, but usually we make them.

But on this particular (very gorgeous) Saturday, we let the kids stay home. They bargained that they would clean the house while Taido and I were gone on a walk. We stayed out most of the afternoon and logged ten miles on these mountain bike trails nearby. I was exhausted from trying to keep up with Taido, but it was all kinds of good stuff.

We found a stone circle in the heather fields.

This photo is just for my niece, Grace, who was constantly wishing we could perform some kind of Outlander ritual at a stone circle while she visited this summer. Serious faces + Hands on Stones = Outlander Scene. (I’ve actually not ever read or seen Outlander, so I have no idea what I’m talking about.)

And bonus of the day: We came home to a clean house.

The leaves started to change around this time.

September 20.

Sunday walking to church. (MP with a new bob.)

September 23.

Back at the beach a few days later.

I found a new shell/bead for my dreads.

September 24.

Walking in my neighborhood.

September 25.

Back at the beach. Only this time a little further north.

This is the mouth of the River Don, and I usually walk on the south side of the Don, but you can also walk on the north side where the sand dunes rise up in front of the Royal Aberdeen Golf Club.

I climbed up the dunes and was sitting in the grass when I met a lady who was a bit lost. She spoke not a word of English but somehow, she communicated that she was lost.

We walked back together through these grasses above the sea until we reached the road and she seemed to recognize where she was. We walked together for half an hour communicating only in hand signals.

September 26.

This photo is from my favorite walk of the whole month, a walk from Tarland that got it’s own post already.

September 27.

The leaves were really starting to change along the Don River on the last Sunday in September.

I walked to church alone that day.

September 28.

The next day I walked to town to meet Taido for his birthday.

The sunset on his birthday was positively gorgeous.

September 29.

The next day I went back to the beach to say goodbye to September days of walking.  I thought it would be my last trip to the beach in September. But it turned out that I went back the next night.

September 30.

On the last day of September. I walked on the beach boardwalk with my friend Joy. In the almost dark, we took turns sharing the joys and sorrows of the past couple of months since we’d seen each other. Once it was pitch dark and we could no longer see, we sat on a bench facing the North Sea with thermos cups of tea. We could just make out the ships in the distance from their lights on the water. While we sat there talking, a blood red moon started rising out of the sea. We gasped. We could not stop looking and being in awe at the giant light coming up and spilling out onto the water. We kept talking and drinking tea (and eating my favorite new Italian biscuits) and coming back to the moon. What a gift it was. The light got higher and brighter and the reflection lengthened over the water, a shimmering path of light now. Stretching out before us. Calling to us. We stayed watching it for as long as we could stand the shivers and well after the tea had gone cold.

For most of September, I walked alone on paths in and around Aberdeen. I sang songs and memorized words and prayed and listened to podcasts and wondered at trees and rocks and sea. But in His mercy, God gave me the gift of beginning and ending this beautiful month alongside dear friends. A dear, longtime friend from my childhood and a dear, new-this-season friend from my current home.

There is a picture there somehow of the journey I am on in this faraway country, and I am painting it by marking the hour of almost every day that I get outside and move my feet along the path. If I did not walk, if I did not remember to be grateful for the walk, and to mark it in some way, I am afraid that I might miss out on seeing God’s grace washing over my days the way the surf comes up over my rainboots.

The post Chasing Daylight in Scotland in September appeared first on Alison Chino.

I will forever remember it as one of the loveliest walks of our entire time in Scotland.

It was Taido’s birthday weekend and we talked Ben and Simon into getting out for a longer day so we drove a little further than usual (over an hour) and hiked a little further than usual (over 10 miles), and as a result discovered a trail that combines many of our favorite elements of walking in Scotland.

Forests, easy rolling hills, fern groves and moors of heather. The loop walk from Tarland to the top of Pressendye and back has a bit of everything.

By the end of the day I was dreaming of moving into this little village (and specifically the cottage in the photo on the hillside) so that this walk could become my daily stomping ground.

And while moving out in the middle of nowhere to the Highlands is a silly dream (the best kind!), I feel certain that we will go back to Tarland to do this trail again.

Taido found this walk on the website he uses to download hiking maps so if you’re in the Highlands or Aberdeenshire and you want a gorgeous, easy walk, you can follow the directions from Walk Highlands, but here are about a million (or twenty) photos to tempt you to make the journey.

You park in the darling village of Tarland and then walk on the road for a bit. I pointed to the hill in this photo to show how super gradual and the climb up is. You walk up this road, through a forest and then up the ridge to the hilltops.

I love the reminders that you are welcome to walk!

On top!

Shelter on top for a little lunch.

And tea of course!

Down through fields of heather.

Perfectly placed picnic table? Of course.

Hello most romantic little lane of birch trees. I’d like to stay here forever please.

Also we picked wild raspberries and blackberries along this route.

Golden fields along the final track made a beautiful finish to our day.

Back in Tarland, there was a little market going on so we had coffee and fresh baked treats from a cart in the village square.

I can’t wait to see this walk in the spring!

The post Chasing Daylight in Tarland, Scotland appeared first on Alison Chino.

The first year we were in Scotland I was a little puzzled to discover that the schools have a two week holiday in October. It seems like a strange time of year to be out of school and the weather is often less than ideal.

But now we have embraced this yearly hold over from a time when school kids were needed to bring in the potato harvest and we spend our “Tattie Holidays” finding new trails to walk.

Our first year we went to the Lake District and even in the rain, we were so smitten that we have been back three more times!

Then last year we went to the Isle of Skye. And oh-my-goodness, was it ever LOVELY!

This year we are heading to the Northwest Highlands of Scotland, a far corner of this country that we have yet to discover.

I expect there will be lots of tea and hot cocoa inside the cottage we have rented with our friends, but we’re also packing our waterproofs in the hopes of blazing a few new trails.

So those walks will make up my Chasing Daylight challenge for October. I’m looking forward to discovering them, and then sharing them here!

Happy October, friends!

PS If you’re playing along and #ChasingDaylight in your part of the world, where are you hoping to walk/bike/swim/run in October?

The post Chasing Daylight in October appeared first on Alison Chino.

Chasing Daylight in August: Cruden Bay in the Rain

Friday night, 11 pm

The chance for rain had gone up to 90%.

Taido had been checking the weather hourly all evening, watching the increase from a 10% chance to “almost certainly it’s going to rain.”

Now he was feeling uncertain about our plans for a Saturday outing, the one I had been planning in my mind as:

My Perfect Last Day of Summer with Friends

or

Mary Polly’s 16th Birthday Outing

or

Cole’s Only Saturday Home After Being Gone For Three Months

Even Taido was only whizzing through for a weekend, home from Germany to say a quick hello.

The rain had poured down all day Friday. Cole had been sleeping off jet lag while the other kids watched movies.

Cole and Taido were both leaving again on Sunday.

We needed this outing.

Let’s just see what it looks like when we wake up, I said. The weather is constantly changing. Maybe it will be pretty.

Silence from Taido.

Saturday morning, 6 am

TC (Taido): It’s already raining.

Me: What about in Ballater?

TC: It’s already raining there as well.

Me: Ugh.

I rolled over and tried to go back to sleep, but then I heard an alarm, and soon afterwards, the shower coming on.

It was MP, up early to get ready for her birthday walk with friends.

I rolled back over.

Me: We can’t cancel. We have to get out today.

TC: Ugh. I’m not driving an hour and a half to walk in the rain.

I sat up and pulled out my phone. Now we were both sitting up in bed and looking at the weather.

Me: It looks a little clearer north of Aberdeen. What if we try Cruden Bay? That’s closer anyway.

TC: Hmm.

Me: Do you think folks will still come?

TC: Hmm. Maybe text them and see.

Good morning friends! Well it looks like it is going to rain all day in Ballater. So we’re thinking of heading up to Cruden Bay to walk along the coast to the Bullers of Buchan and then back. We may still get rained on but the forecast looks a little clearer that way. Thoughts?

The replies came back.

Miraculously, we still had a small company of willing walkers.

Thank goodness for crazy Brits who consider horrible weather as normal as breakfast or afternoon tea.

One family who was previously not going actually decided to go on Saturday morning. They woke up to rainy skies and thought, Maybe we’ll join that in on that walk after all!  Who does that?? I’ll tell you who. People who were born in Scotland.

There were grumbles from some corners of our house about walking in the rain, and moods did not improve as we loaded up in the car in a steady drizzle of rainfall.

I think the sky looks to be a brighter shade of gray up ahead, I pointed out optimistically.

No one agreed.

Taido turned on his electric beats that we’ve been driving around to all summer long.

MP: Ugh. I’m sick of this playlist.

Cole: I’ve never heard it.

Ben: That’s because you’ve been gone.

Cole. That’s right. And I wish I still was!

MP: Daddy please, I hate this song!

TC: Shut it.

MP: FINE!

MP: Will you at least turn it up?

We rode the rest of the way in silence. I was alternatively relieved and horrified that we would be with others for the rest of the day, hoping the distraction would make us better versions of ourselves rather than worse.

10:30 am

Everyone met in the car park. Blessedly, for a few minutes, it was not raining.

It’s one thing to be prepared to walk in the rain. It’s quite another to actually start out in it.

From the Cruden Bay car park, you walk first through a bit of forest and then on to New Slain’s Castle, a ruin named as such because there is a tower remaining further south of Old Slain’s Castle. But New Slain’s is also old.

From the castle, the walk leaves the road and continues on a single track trail along the dramatic coastline.

The scenery is magnificent. Rock outcroppings, cliff drops, waves crashing below. Even the occasional puffin spotting.

On a pretty day, the views will take your breath away.

But even on a rainy day, if you poke your head out from under your hood, the cliffs below are gorgeous.

But my kids had not come for the views.

Having done this walk multiple times, they are sadly immune to its beauty.

The only reason they were not sitting back in the car and refusing to get out was the company.

And thankfully, when it started raining about ten minutes into the walk and did not stop for the remainder of the day, the company was enough to keep going.

Even before the rain was actually falling, everyone was wet up to their knees from the muddy trail and tall grass.

It’s been a very wet summer in Northeast Scotland. And the green grass and bushes have thrived. They were much taller and thicker than I remembered them being in June when we had last walked this trail.

Everyone fell into patterns of twos and threes, talking and laughing. And shrugging off the soggy day.

Soaking wet trousers and socks, mud to our ankles and no sign of a break in the rain for a picnic lunch–it was certainly not what I had imagined when I determined to plan “A Perfect Last Day Of Summer With Friends.”

But when we were all finally off the coastline and back on the road, crammed with standing room only in a bus shelter to eat our sandwiches, I looked around and everyone was smiling.

One of the kids started a game that they had all played at summer camp, a sort of calling and answering game where the lead gets passed around. They were all chanting responses back and forth, while the adults passed around thermos cups of hot tea and coffee.

As I warmed my hands around my cup of tea, I paused to hold the memory in my mind of the unassuming gathering.

It was not picnic blankets spread under blue skies and faces to the sun, but still.

It was actually kind of perfect.

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