Does Not Play Well with Others

The Vinery is a community hub, based in the refurbished Victorian vinery (slanted glasshouse) previously part of the Duff House walled garden.  The hub has become a real boon to the town arranging walks, wellbeing, cookery and crafts sessions every week.  I hadn’t been for a while as I found it a bit noisy inside.  They have a community van now, and I booked to go a trip to ‘The Waters of Philorth’, mostly as I’d never heard of said waters. 

This is a nature reserve east of Fraserburgh, full of rushes and skylarks, which deltas through the glorious sand dunes of Fraserburgh Bay.  The marram grass is spotted with heartsease pansies, birds-foot trefoil, marsh orchids and the tiny white tenacity of Danish scurvygrass – a salt-loving plant now flourishing on central reservations of salted roads.  Clever.

The sea was crystal clear.  Airforce blue, breaking to teal and jade green waves, golden sand, luminous in the sunshine.  The bitter cold north wind on your cheeks, a delicious contrast to the warm sunshine on your back. 

We walked, freedom sandwiched alfresco on Fraserburgh boardwalk, then popped into LIDL for some hazelnut rye bread on the way home. 

I had worried I’d hate the trip.  It would be loud.  I wouldn’t know anyone.  I realised I think of myself as someone who doesn’t join in.  Who doesn’t play well with others.  I’ve started questioning those thoughts.  What do I get away with and what do I get out of by thinking those things about myself? 

One of the women I met previously on Iona on a week of ‘Transformation Game’, another used to chat about my micro-plot at the castle, and one of the men was on a course I did earlier this year.  It was a lovely day.  I didn’t hate it.

https://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/aberdeenshire/fraserburgh-bay.shtml