Another Souvenir From St Andrews

Before we headed to St Andrews a couple of weeks ago we decided that, although it's one of our favourite paintings, The Race by PJ Crook looked a bit lost on the wall that we had chosen for it and we needed something a bit bigger to finish off the dining area.

After being so impressed by David Mackie Cook's exhibition at Fraser Gallery in St Andrews in November we thought it would be good to see if Roderick Fraser had any of DMC's pictures available in a size that would be more proportionate with the room. And I'm delighted to say that he did. We had a choice of five or six paintings but only two would look right in the room.

We went for this one of a spectacular foamy flecked sea. We think it's the perfect size for the room and looks much better in that spot than The Race.

That left us with having to find somewhere for The Race but with a bit of swapping around we found just the right spot in the hall.

I really love our paintings and it's a pity that we've no more room to hang any more. We'll have to store some in a cupboard and swap them around at different times of the year.

Ten Things We'll Miss About St Andrews

With just three more nights to go before we head south (weather permitting - I see that the Mirror and Express had big weather scare headlines yesterday), it's time to take stock of our six months in the caravan here in St Andrews.

Little did we know when we told the buyers of our house that we'd be happy to move out before the work on the place in Suffolk was finished that we were committing ourselves to over half a year of living on a caravan site and eighteen thousand miles of driving up and down the country. But it hasn't been at all bad. In fact, although we've known St Andrews ever since Sarah started university thirteen or so years ago, we never really KNEW it until 2011 when we bought the static at Craigtoun Meadows and even then we only knew it as temporary visitors.

Eighteen months later we've grown to love it and if we did not have family in other parts of the country we could quite happily have opted for retirement here. We watch A Place In The Sun Home And Away regularly and it never ceases to amaze me how people hanker for foreign climes when there are such fabulous places in the UK. Anyway, here are the ten things we'll miss the most. The list excludes our family who, it goes without saying, will be missed a hundred times more than anything else.

1. The caravan itself. You may think that being cooped up together in such a small place twenty four/ seven for six months would be enough to send anyone stir crazy but it's been cosy and quite relaxing (when not dealing with 101 queries from builders, architects, decorators, electricians and other suppliers) and there's a lot to be said about a place that takes just an hour or two a week to keep clean.

2. The wildlife. Unfortunately I don't have any photos but since most of the regular caravan visitors have stopped coming during the winter months more and more animals have shown themselves and we find ourselves watching rabbits and buzzards and listening to owls. Recently new arrivals have appeared and we regularly see three deer wandering across the site and even spotted a rare red squirrel
last week. 

3 The local scenery. Rugged coastlines, glorious sandy beaches, spectacular ancient monuments. Few places can equal what it has to offer.

4 Cycling. We've not done much in November and December but from July through to October we were on our bikes frequently and built up a number of excellent routes raging from a simple ride to the shops to more grueling hill climbs with exhilarating descents.

5 Dining out. There are scores of places to eat in St Andrews and we've tried most but you can't really beat The Seafood Restaurant. We've only been three times in the last six months but it has an unbeatable position above the sea, the food is fabulous and the service is first class. 

6 And of course, there's coffee shops too. Forget Starbucks and Costa, our favourite is Mitchells. It's not just a coffee shop. There's a cracking deli, and they serve, breakfast, lunch and dinner as well as our favourite coffees, teas and cakes. The service is great and there's a really buzzing atmosphere. We're going there for their delicious chicken and chorizo bean casserole on Saturday and looking forward to enjoying it with a couple of glasses of chilled wine. The North Point is also worthy of a mention. They advertise it as the place where William and Kate enjoyed coffee and it's usually packed with students enjoying their great teas and some delicious cakes.

7 Metal Detecting. The farmers around St Andrews have been extremely welcoming and I've enjoyed regular days in the fields in glorious countryside and made some great finds to boot. My favourite was this little piece of Bronze Age gold which is currently at the Treasure Unit in Edinburgh but hardly a day out passed without finding something interesting.

8 Fraser Gallery. We only discovered this super little art gallery in November (which is perhaps a good job or we'd be broke). They exhibit paintings by some excellent Scottish artists and we couldn't resist these by Alice McMurrough and David Mackie Cook. Roderick, the proprietor is passionately enthusiastic about his artists and, even if you don't buy, you should have a look at what they have to offer.

9 The night sky. There's virtually no light pollution at Craigtoun Meadows so (although this is not my photo) the sky at night often looks like this. Combine this with the stillness and peace and it's the perfect recipe for relaxation.

10 Last but by no means least, the people of St Andrews. Now I know that many English people see the Scots as a dour race but nothing could be further from the truth. Be it shop, supermarket, cafe, hairdressers, restaurant or hotel we've been served with charm and friendliness without exception. When Marion went into a shop today to buy an obscure battery for my car key, the shopkeeper, on finding that he didn't have one, phoned a competitor for us and asked him to reserve it, Now that's the sort of service you don't find every day. 

St Andrews - we'll miss you.  

Shiny Happy People In St Andrews

30th November has meant nothing to me over the last fifty eight years but living in St Andrews for the past few months has given it a real significance and last night the town celebrated St Andrew's day in true style. We started at 6.30 p.m. with a torchlight procession led by a local pipe band from the town centre to just in front of The Old Course Hotel for a short but very enjoyable fireworks display. As soon as the fireworks finished the band struck up again and the procession returned by the same route to witness the lighting of the town's minimalist Christmas lights.

As the pipers finished playing Scotland The Brave they signalled the Nae 4 Wimps ceilidh to start up and the streets filled with happy people of all ages dancing their hearts out in a joyous celebration. Having two left feet I didn't have the confidence to join in but the music was foot tappingly infectious and the crowd exuded a tremendous spirit of enjoyment (and not a hint of alcohol to fuel the revelry).

It was a huge disappointment that Sarah, Rose and Duncan were not able to make it to the event. I'm sure that they would have had a fabulous time and Sarah, with her dancing expertise, could have shown us the steps.

And Rose wold have been fascinated by some of the groups of students who attended in a variety of outrageous outfits. A hugely successful event.

As the outdoor ceilidh drew to a close we headed down the road to an art exhibition at the super Fraser Gallery. It was opening night for a show by Scottish artist David Mackie Cook and we enjoyed a warming glass of mulled wine before viewing four rooms of wonderful paintings. We loved the art on show and couldn't resist buying this painting The White Hoose for the house in Framlingham.

That means that we've got two paintings from the gallery as souvenirs of our stay in this wonderful little place.

I'll leave you with three early morning St Andrew's day photos.

A Scottish Souvenir

As the clock counts down towards our relocation we thought that it would be nice to take something down to Framlingham with us to remind us of our six month stay in St Andrews. So we had a good look around town at the weekend and went into several of the excellent galleries to see what was on offer. At the excellent Fraser Gallery we both fell in love with this little oil painting Maiden Voyage by award winning Scottish artist Alice McMurrough. We've not seen any of her paintings before but we had the same feeling about her art as we did twenty years ago when we first saw an exhibition by another of our favourite artists, P J Crook. We had to buy it. I appreciate that a local seascape or landscape might be a more fitting memento of our Scottish adventure but we tend to prefer more esoteric pieces. We went through the list of thirty or more pictures that we've got in store and tried to work out where in Framlingham we can hang them. We certainly wont be able to show them all so it looks like eBay or an art dealer beckons when we're settled in.   

This one, The Race by PJ Crook, is one that we won't be getting rid of. It's one of our favourites and hopefully we'll find a good spot to hang it. We've missed our paintings in the caravan although we did manage to find a space for this super watercolour by St Lucian artist Xavier Llewellyn. (no he didn't paint a pair of hands and a camera in it).

It's not long before our super new fitted kitchen installation begins in Framlingham. We're very excited about the prospect of cooking in a big kitchen again. People have asked us how we manage with our meals in the caravan but the little gas oven is okay and we eat pretty well. 

The other day I cooked this pork and aubergine bake and tonight I tried one of the Nigel Slater recipes from his latest series. The home made beef burgers which use ricotta cheese instead of the usual breadcrumbs to bind the mixture were absolutely delicious. With capers, spring onions and rosemary in the mix, the flavour was amazing. We'll certainly be downloading more of Nigel's meals from the BBC website; they're extremely easy too.