Red Dawn

Okay, not quite dawn, but an early morning ride...

It's strange when you live somewhere how little you take things in. From the age of 4, until I went to study in France at 20, I lived in Ellon. A village when we first moved here north of Aberdeen, it's now a reasonable sized town, and for the first time in at least 10 years on a trip back north I went round all the old places I knew. Our first house, second (council) house, primary and secondary schools, paper round routes, and the old woods where I used to spend a huge amount of time playing.

And in all of those years playing I never once saw a red squirrel. Now I know as I kid I would have been running about making a noise, and in later years walking the dog, but you would have thought there would have been a glimpse, no matter how brief, a short flash of red. But no.

For the first time ever the drive to a big house near the secondary school, with Ellon Castle's ruins lying to the side, was open at the big gate, so I got up close to the ruins. Well... It's just one wall sort of still standing, but it overlooks some nice (inaccessible) gardens, with a Victorian style terrace overlooking.

As for everywhere else, it all basically looks the same, just a little older (naturally). It's the small tweaks that surprise. A park being laid out differently; a fence dismantled; new temporary buildings out the back of the school. Nostalgia really is about things that aren't the same anymore.

It's been a great trip back home, the best in years, what with yesterday's seals; Indian takeaway; rugby & football; and a nice ride back into my childhood, complete with red squirrels. Well worth the drive up.

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