The last time I visited Strathlene beach at Buckie was in  the winter of 2006.  I was returning home after conducting a funeral at the Moray Crematorium in the Old Enzie Kirk at Broadley.  I decided to pay a quick visit to Buckie to see how the town where we lived for ten years in the 1970s and 80s had changed, and I stopped off at my favourite Buckie beach to eat my sandwiches.  The sun was shining that day, but there was a true Buckie gale blowing and it was bitterly cold, not exactly the weather to explore what remained of the old outdoor swimming pool and the beaches and rocks where the children had played, and where Nero our delinquent Labrador would regularly run off, only to return in his on good time.

There was something else on my mind that day in 2006 too.  Mary was away, visiting Rosie and family  in Oman  We were looking for a house at the time for our planned move from Aberdeen, and while she was away I had found a possible house in Hatton.  I would pay a quick visit there on my way home.  As it turned out that was the house which would become our new home.

Now nearly ten years later I was at Strathlene again, this time Mary was with me, and Lily and Poppy.  Again I had been at the Moray Crematorium and we had decided to take a quick drive through Buckie, stopping for a while to let the dogs stretch their legs on the beach.   The weather, however was quite different:  this was a still, muggy, late August afternoon.   As we walked along the beach we recalled visits there when the children were small, sometimes with grandparents.   This is the only sandy beach in Buckie, and on the fine summer days it would be a favourite place to visit, paddling in the water, digging in the sand, exploring among the rocks.  And it was here at Strathlene we would hold evening barbecues with the Buckie North Church youth group.

I know I have pictures of visits here with the children in the 1970s.  I must look for them.  In the meantime here is a pictures of Mary, Donald and Nero on the beach in 1975, and a delightful picture of little Donald on the same occasion.  The original pictures are now quite orange with age, but it is amazing what you can do with Photoshop!

I have also made a scan from an old slide of waves at Strathlene, quite different to the calm still water we found today.  The slide was taken a little father along the coast than we ventured today, towards Findochty.  But the view is essentially the same.