Dawn over Sandend Bay

This is the dawn I've been dreaming of blipping in this tiny fishing hamlet at the edge of the sea on the Moray Coast. Save for a wire fence and some rocks there is nothing between the cottage and Sandend Bay with its broad beach and endless waves.

I woke as the sky lightened this morning and stood outside in my nightie to capture the bay in the first light, with a seagull chorus in the background as the birds wheeled and called before hunkering down on the wet sand left as the tide ebbed.

Later, His Lordship and I caught the bus to nearby Cullen for food shopping- the downside of not having a car and staying in a hamlet with no shop. We licked ice creams as we waited for the return journey- the 1st November and it's a golden day of sun and warmth.

Yesterday our journey was seamless as we bussed up to Inverness and then along the Moray coast on slow buses that took in little fishing villages down at the shore; places with north east names-Portgordon, Buckie, Portessie, Findochty, Portknockie and Cullen. There are so many more of these delightful fishing villages along this coast all the way to Fraserburgh.