178. Birds Eye View 3

This one looks over the rooftops towards the west end of the village.

177. Birds Eye View 2

This one shows the view from the roof at the front of Johnshaven Stores, looking towards Castle Street and The Square. 

176. Birds Eye View 1

Our roof is very unusual in that it is actually three pitched roofs all joined together.  This causes problems with drainage and leaves, moss etc build up in the valleys where two roofs meet.  So Ewan went up onto the roof to clear the debris and took some photos of the view from up there. 

This one's looking across Anchor Lane towards the inner harbour. 

175. Harvest time

Here's another 'revisited' photo.  You saw this field when it was full of waving barley.  Now it has been harvested and just the stubble remains.

174. Missing railway bridge

I recently posted photos from the bottom and the top of Balandro Loan.  This is also Balandro Loan, at the point where the tarmac gives way to grass, and is the site of the old railway bridge.  You can walk to either side of this along the route of the old railway line.

173. Evening light

There's no light as magical as that cast by the evening sun.

172. Looking up

Don't you just love looking up at the sky through the tree tops?  Well I certainly do, and I decided to take a piccie like this now because those leaves will soon be gone.

171. New creels

Yesterday morning I snapped this photo of a delivery of shiny new creels sitting at the harbour.  As you can see these are just the outer frames and the netting is still to be added.

170. Tandem

I spotted this when out for an evening stroll yesterday.  Not something you see everyday - unless you own one of course!

169. Big hole

This photo's a bit dark as it was taken on a grotty day, but hopefully you can make out enough to see that a large space has been cleared ready for building work to start on a new house.  This is going to be a very interesting, modern, environmentally friendly eco-house.

All being well, I'll be able to take some piccies of it as it grows. 
If you're interested in seeing the drawings on the planning application, click here.

168. In bloom

A while ago I posted a picture of volunteers planting up tubs beside the harbour on a miserable day.
Here's the beautiful result of their labours, brightening up the harbour all through the summer.

167. Firey blooms

These orangey red flowers at the entrance to the caravan park are looking lovely just now.  Regular readers will know that plant identification is not my strong point!

166. NEOS day 9

Today's the last day of NEOS 2011, boo, sob, sniff etc. 

Here's another new Johnshaven entry for this year - Brian Miller's superb oil paintings displayed in his freshly painted house!

165. NEOS day eight

The Anchor Hotel, which has an excellent reputation for its food, is host to Chris Hulton's work during NEOS.  Chris's abstract paintings are hanging all around the bar area, up the staircase and along the upstairs corridor.

164. NEOS day seven

Every year during NEOS Ranjit's house becomes the Johnshaven Gallery (venue 131).  There's a riot of colour in here with paintings and 'extreme knitting' by Bern Ross, Ranjit's fused glass and beaded jewellery and handmade cards by Leiana Henderson.

163. NEOS day six

Here's Hilary Firth of Starglazing potting away at her venue on Main Street.

She's sharing her space with Brazen Hussies jewellery and Alison Stewart who can be seen painting in Hilary's living room.

162. NEOS day five

This is venue 241, where Morag Smith's (that's her on the left) beautiful paintings are displayed alongside the superb figurative work of Kelly Anne Cairns (third from the left).  You can be sure of a warm welcome and maybe a glass of wine if you call in to the Blue Garage!

Just around the corner, Morag's shed is venue 91 where FLUX are exhibiting their photography for the first time.  FLUX is Brodie Smith and Anna McCallum - pictured here at the entrance to the shed.  They've managed to display a lot of their interesting work in a very small space!

These photos were taken at the weekend, but I popped back this morning and saw that the comments door is filling up nicely!

161. NEOS day four

This very special building is venue no. 51.  The Old Lifeboat House has the most amazing ceiling and it's well worth taking the opportunity to have a peek as well as to look at the art display by the Coastal Colourists and photography by Hector Christie.

The Coastal Colourists are a group who meet weekly at Wairds Park to paint, make and chat in an informal atmosphere.  The room they use has large windows on three sides, letting loads of light stream in and giving a panoramic view of the sea.  They are always happy to welcome new members so if you fancy joining them, pop along on a Wednesday morning.

Exciting plans are well underway to transform The Old Lifeboat House into a Heritage Centre and Community Cafe.

160. NEOS day three

This wooden summerhouse is the venue for the Apple Cottage Company (cat no.11) and Quirkycat (cat no.215).

Susan at the Apple Cottage Company works with textiles to make beautiful home accessories, brooches, keyrings and more.  Her sister Tracy at Quirkycat makes the most unusual and beautiful jewellery, much of which is reversible.

159. NEOS day two

This is venue no. 270, Patricia Walter's gorgeous wee cottage by the harbour.  This is the first time she has exhibited in Johnshaven and it's well worth a visit. 

The cottage is full of lovely things to see - as well as Patricia's colourful paintings and superb photography there's jewellery made by her daughter Jessica and some locally woven willow baskets.

158. NEOS day one

Yellow signs have appeared on fences, lamposts and doors all around the village as today is the start of NEOS.  All over Aberdeenshire people will be spending the next nine days visiting artists and makers in venues of all different shapes and sizes.

Here in Johnshaven we have 12 entries in the NEOS catalogue, but there are many more people than that actually exhibiting.

It's a great day out, and at the weekends there's a cafe in the Village Hall to raise funds for the Primary School and our local environmental group, Shark.

157. Nearly NEOS

The excitement is building... the hotly anticipated North East Open Studios starts tomorrow.   For the next nine days artists and makers all over Aberdeenshire will be showing their talents to the public in studios, village halls, cafes, galleries, living rooms etc.

Here in Johnshaven we have 12 participants, some of whom are exhibiting together.  We have a special map showing each venue to help you find your way around the village - pick it up from any venue in the village or from Johnshaven Stores.

156. Scurdie Ness on a beautiful morning

It's a beautiful day here today.  I took this pic looking across to Scurdie Ness, the lighthouse at Ferryden (near Montrose).  Sometimes it's a bit hazy or obscured by cloud, but today the view in this direction is just perfect!

155. Outside in!

A few piccies today - the first one shows the location of the later ones in relation to Starfish Studio.

The room above the shop was, for many years, a house belonging to Lizzie Blues.  In later life she was known as the Cat Lady due to the large number of cats she kept in this tiny house!  (I think I'll probably be a cat lady myself one day...)

Her house is now our living room, which I find staggering.  It's a decent sized room, but as an entire house, divided into a sleeping room and a living room, it would have been tiny.  No bathroom of course.

Enough of the history lesson, more about the photos.

The house was accessed via an external stone stair which you can see to the left of Starfish Studio.  The stones are quite worn so it was obviously in use for many, many years. 

As the door now opens directly into our living room, we never use it.  Coupled with the fact that we are extremely busy people with no natural gardening ability whatsoever, it's not surprising that the steps become very overgrown every summer.  I have to admit that I quite like this - there's a pretty fuscia growing out of the steps at the moment, and I love the rambling look of this spreading plant that has taken over.

But last night I noticed that the outside has started to come to the inside!  It's like the Triffids or the Little Shop of Horrors invading our living room!!

Time to get our gardening gloves on methinks!

FYI - the key in the above photo is the one from the ill fitting, ancient door that was here before we started all the building work.  This door in fact...

154. Ugly but necessary

Not the most attractive feature of the village, but this is our water tower. 

It may be an ugly thing, but it's a very important ugly thing.

153. Balandro Loan from the top

Believe me, it's steeper than it looks!  Puff, pant!

152. Balandro Loan from the bottom

Balandro Loan starts off as a tarmac road, but after crossing the path of the old railway line it turns into a steep, grassy path to the houses at the top - an excellent walk if you want a mini workout!  

151. An unusual landmark

A fence post along Herd Crescent has been customised by the owners of the house opposite.  It currently has feathers sticking out above a Saltire.

150. Seafront

This is quite a good one to give you an idea of the size of the coastal defence boulders. 

It also shows the way in which many gardens are across the road from the cottages to which they belong.



149. Wee burn

This burn flows onto the beach, going under the road/ path beside The Narrows. 
When there's a decent amount of water flowing you can hear a lovely gurgling sound as you walk along.