Teddy Edward: October 2020

There have been few opportunities to get away for a break (safely) over the last 6 months, however when things were a bit quieter at the end of August we had a family holiday for a few days in the East Neuk of Fife.

We chose a 'safer stay' holiday home in St Monans from Cottages.com. The additional cleaning associated with this 'safer stay' meant that we couldn't get in to the property until after 5pm; so on our way we stopped off at Elie, bought a bucket and spade and headed down to the beach. Graeme didn't have his beach shoes on (they were packed away in the case) so he went barefoot............ brave on a Scottish beach in late summer............ we kept our shoes on!

On the Beach at Elie with Nana

The Beach at Elie Harbour

Alan in the Magic Circle

Graeme stayed with us and built sandcastles while Laura and Alan went on a beach-combing hunt to find shells to decorate the sandcastles:

Beach-combing at Elie

Decorating the Sandcastle with shells

Alan also did a bit of sand sign-writing:

Message in the sand

You can tell from our attire that it wasn't the warmest day on the beach, but we all enjoyed it, especially Graeme. After his first tentative steps and the strange feeling of sand between the toes he was quite happy running around the sand in his bare feet. It was a struggle to get him to leave, but we had to get to the holiday home and unpack.

The holiday home was ideal, very spacious with more than enough bedrooms and bathrooms and as a bonus a wonderful view of the Forth Estuary:

View over St Monans Harbour

View over St Monans from Holiday Home

This little video clip probably gives you a better idea of the panoramic view we had from the upstairs lounge window:

Graeme also liked the kitchen/diner area, where he had plenty of space to do his yoga. or play with his toy van:

Yoga Moves

Great place for playing with cars (or vans)

Once we had unpacked and settled in Laura cooked us a lovely meal and we had a relaxing evening, punctuated by a Tesco delivery of essential groceries.

The next morning we were up bright and early and after breakfast we headed out for a walk down to St Monans harbour then up to the Auld Kirk on the west side of the town:

Welly Boot Garden at St Monans Harbour

Auld Kirk at St Monans

The Auld Kirk was a very interesting place, despite the fact that you could not get inside due to Covid restrictions, but there was plenty to see from the outside. It also boasted commanding views across the rocky shoreline to the estuary.

Auld Kirk at St Monans

Lovely Location

Visiting the Auld Kirk

How to spoil a lovely view

Here is a picture of the view without me spoiling it, and also some weather-worn stones on the wall surrounding the Auld Kirk.

Beautiful Seascape

Auld Kirk Sea Wall

Love this weather-worn sandstone

After a good browse around the Auld Kirk graveyard it was time to head back to the holiday home for a spot of lunch:

Heading back to St Monans

After lunch we decided to go for a run in the car. Graeme was hankering after another beach trip so we drove a few miles north to the south side of Anstruther which has a little beach at Billowness. Unfortunately the tide was against us, even though it was not yet high tide there was very little sand to be had.

Graeme was not amused, so we continued on to Anstruther harbour, which may have had some sand not covered by the tide, but we could not find a parking place as it was 'heaving' with visitors. We decided not to dwell.

We carried on North to the quaint village of Crail, parked up and headed down towards the harbour area. Once again there was no sand around this area due to the rising tide but I did spot a sandy area on the other side of Crail at Roome Bay. Graeme was not pleased about going back in the car again, but it was only for a few minutes.

Bingo! we struck lucky at Roome Bay, not a lot of beach available but enough for Graeme to exercise his bucket and spade:

Digging for Dinosaurs at Roome Bay, Crail

Nana watching the waves

Alan & Laura digging Roome Bay too!

We spent a good hour on this little patch of beach and Graeme was well pleased. After this we headed back to the holiday home for another lovely meal made by Laura (or was it Alan? he did the cooking one night).

The following day we decided to travel a little further afield and drove up to St Andrews. It wasn't the beach we were heading to this time, we planned to visit the aquarium at St Andrews. It is not the biggest of aquariums but as well as a good variety of fishy things it does have some of Graeme's favourite creatures, namely Penguins, Seals and (strangely enough) Meerkats? Graeme had been forewarned that we were not going to the beach that day but would see some Penguins, so he brought his cuddly Penguin along for company:

Watching the Seals with Mama

Honest, there were seals there!

Meeting the Penguins

His introduction to one Penguin who came up to see him was quite touching, so I tried to video it, then Graeme became more interested in my camcorder and wanted to video the Penguin himself:

I really enjoyed the visit to the aquarium, even though it was a bit small, it had plenty interesting things in it. We had a wander through the town of St Andrews after that and bought a few sandwiches for lunch, which we enjoyed in the car parked up beside the West Sands beach. It was a showery day and not really beach weather.

We drove back to St Monans taking a different route through Cupar and cutting across country. Graeme slept most of the way (as did others) but not me! Once again we had a delicious meal and a relaxing evening at the holiday home.

Next morning after breakfast we headed out again, this time it was slightly different. Moira and I took Graeme in the car to Ruby Bay, near Elie while Alan & Laura set of on foot to walk the Fife Coastal Path from St Monans to Elie, hoping to meet up with us at Ruby Bay. It was only a 5 minute drive for us and it was anticipated that it would take Alan & Laura about an hour to walk to Ruby Bay.

It wasn't the warmest of days and the sea was a bit choppy, but Graeme seemed to enjoy the beach at Ruby Bay (especially since he had his sandals on):

Ruby Bay, Elie

Choppy Seas at Ruby Bay

Throwing Stones in the sea (nice sandals)

Dodging the waves with Nana

We had been on the beach for over an hour but there was no sign of Alan & Laura, we then got a text telling us they had just passed Ardross Castle (which is just over half way!) Obviously the estimated time didn't take into account the ins and outs of the coastal path, or the fact they were battling against the wind.

We had another half hour on the beach but it started to rain so we headed back to the car for some shelter......... and a pair of warm socks, and a snack for the wee yin. The rain blew over and it brightened up a little just as a windswept couple appeared on the horizon. Alan & Laura had hoped to spend some time with us on the beach but it was getting near lunchtime (and the toilet block was closed) so we decided to drive back to the holiday home (this time A&L came in the car).

After lunch the weather had brightened up a bit so Graeme got to spend some time in the garden with his Daddy, playing football and generally just mucking about:

Holiday Football with Daddy

No rest with a toddler!

There is always some mischief to get up to!

It had been a busy but enjoyable day and after tea-time we were able to relax in the upstairs lounge and enjoy the views (now that the weather had improved). I took the opportunity to do a bit of bird watching, and Graeme decided to join me. Laura managed to capture the moment:

What are you on?....... Not sure!

Wish I could get these to focus properly!

Bonxie, going left, 12 o'clock, you on it?..... Yep!

It wasn't really a Bonxie!, but there were plenty of Gannets flying about and it was great to watch them plunge-diving. When I filmed them later however they refused to 'dive' for the camera:

Love watching these magnificent birds making flight look so effortless, pity I missed the ones that were plunge-diving for fish.

This was our last night at the holiday home, so the rest of the evening was down to packing things up and getting ready for an early exit the next morning. We had to be out of the holiday home by 9am to allow plenty of time for the house to be cleaned and prepared for the next visitors, so it was all systems go in the morning.

With the car all packed and ready that early we decided to make the best of our last day in Fife's East Neuk and headed back up to St Andrews. This time the weather was sunnier, if a bit windy, so we headed straight to the beach at West Sands. The wind did not deter Graeme from building sandcastles and it was ideal for Laura's wish to fly her kite (didn't even know she had one with her!).