The house was built for us by a local builder, and we managed to have quite a lot of input into its design - both internal and external. It is the first time we have ever been in the position to have a house built (and probably the last as well!) We moved out of the high prices and cramped living conditions of Aberdeen city - and moved far enough away to escape the worst of the Aberdeen house price 'ripple effect', but close enough to commute to work daily.

There is a lot of farmland all round, so finding a plot and building on it was an option open to us. It took almost a year to complete it all and move in, but we think it has proved the work and the wait!

One thing we were quite new to was starting a garden from scratch - quite literally a mud patch left after the building work was complete. And we have learnt what will thrive here and what simply won't grow! We live too far north for growing a wide range of traditional bedding plants and flowers - we get heavy snow most winters, and plenty of biting wind keeps all but the most hardy plants away!

But we have managed to grow some lovely things over the years that we have been here, and finally the garden is beginning to look established, and the trees have grown.

the wind-swept front garden in March 2003

and the rhododendron bushes in full bloom a month or two later!

A typical winter view from the front door ......

....  and honeysuckle along the old trellis in the summer