Lovely Days in Maud & a visit at Longside

I had hoped to be finished writing my book by Saturday when I leave, but I doubt if I’ll make that goal now….I’ve had some fantastic results with my research and I’m ever so grateful to Oliver Fuller for being my driver and guide to the area, and thankful that his wife Margaret has also willingly helped me with identifying flora and fauna, as well as cooking me a lovely meal and allowing me to sit at her kitchen table to work away on my computer so I could link to the Internet.

They have a lovely house about two minutes walk from the hotel. Their house is the two story one slightly to the left in the photo.

Between writing stints, I’ve been seeing a great deal of the countryside as well, as simply enjoying the atmosphere and sights.

In Maud there is the current hospital, which was one the Poor House, where elderly people lived; basically like an assisted living place and hospice in the olden days.
Oyster catchers are quite intriguing birds. This one tried to lead me away from their nest, which was on the edge of a grassy verge very near a construction site.
On the road one day, we came across a vintage tractor that had been restored beyond it’s former glory — painted gold.

This morning, I volunteered to read at the village school tomorrow morning…..I just happened to be walking around the village and I was curious about the local Scottish primary school. Turns out last week other teachers came from around the country to the school to see what kind of work they were doing. (She expected about ten teachers, but 112 came to observe.) Apparently, the head mistress (principal to us) has done some spectacular things with the students, which are being admired by the education system. (See Maud Primary School blog)

I’ve also had other interesting spin-offs after this as well. The computer repair shop right across the street from where I am staying printed up a few pages for me so I have them to read at the school (I don’t have any of my books with me)….they were more than helpful when I said what I was doing. Then while I was there they also suggested that I could come and use their Internet connection. These people have five children, some of which will benefit directly from my reading. I did pop over a couple of times to use their Internet as it was right across from the hotel.

The other thing that happened was that while I was in the pub speaking to the new owners (Deborah and Martin Yates) of the hotel where I am staying and asking about where I might possibly go to get my pages printed so I could do the reading, there was a man in the bar who overheard the conversation and also my lament that it was very difficult to get to the town of Mintlaw to get the library.
(Going with one bus company would take four hours, because I have to go all the way into Aberdeen and back out again – and it’s only five miles away!) Another goes at 7:45 am, but the library doesn’t open until 3 pm and there is no way back. A third option is a dial a bus service, but one has to book at least a day ahead….this is the most plausible. However, going back to the fellow in the bar…when he overheard what I was doing and where I was going, he offered to take me any time I wanted to go and for free as well!
I wasn’t able to get to the library this morning, as it was only open from 10 am to 12 pm, and I couldn’t get a bus in time to go (as noted above). Since noon though my life has totally turned around and here I am using the Internet to my heart’s content right across the street and not intruding on someone else’s lifestyle.
By the time evening rolled around, I had another conversation with Oliver and his wife had offered to take me into Mintlaw to the library and they would pick me up later as the three of us were going into Peterhead for dinner at an East Indian restaurant. I took some photographs of the great meal, but unfortunately I lost them somewhere between my camera and downloading them.
The next day, Oliver took me to visit a distant relative who lives at Longside. She filled me in on more history of my great-grandmother’s family and the social and agricultural conditions they would have lived in during the late 1800s before they immigrated to Canada in 1884.
All in all my time in the Maud-Old Deer-Stuartfield area has been more than satisfying!