500
The half-millenium has been reached! Who'd have thought I would have stayed at something for so long!? So there we have it... 500 days worth of (more or less) daily photos. A milestone. Indeed. To celebrate this momentous event, we headed off on the excursion that we were supposed to have headed off on last Sunday. Lunan Bay was to be our first port of call, where we would stop and take a stroll along the beach, and perhaps indulge in a little searching for some of the semi-precious stones that are rumoured to wash down with the Lunan Water to be dumped on the beach beneath Red Castle. Our luck was not with us. Indeed, all we saw was sand - and lots of it. The weather was excellent, although not at all suitable for taking the waters. One soul - either brave or foolhardy - did race past us as he sped, full-tilt, into the icy waters of the North Sea. Just as well he was wearing a wet suit! What he was doing I do not know, and I wasn't really interested enough to wait around to find out - we had to be on our way, because our stomaches were telling us that it was time for nourishment. Our second port of call was Montrose. Described by the tourist board as a 'delightful market town with a thriving harbour', we thought that its semi-rural charms would extend to a cafe. We soon realised that the only cafe available was the one inside the supermarket. If we wanted to go to a supermarket cafe, we thought, then there is a perfectly reasonable one less than two miles from our home. We made the best of a bad lot, and decided to abandon Montrose's dubious charms in favour of the little settlement of Boddin. To call Boddin a village is like calling Montrose a 'charming market town'. It is little more than a single-track road to a house perched on top of a cliff, a bothy sitting at the base of a cliff, and a 17th century lime-kiln that is increasingly teetering on the edge of a cliff. That said, however, it is a wonderful little place, with plenty of nooks and crannies to explore - especially with a 135mm lens! We shall return - although I think I'll give Montrose a miss.

Last year I stayed at home and got some peace and quiet