Leven and Pittenweem

On Friday night, Emma met her friend in town for a movie, and I took Leah to the leisure center in St. Andrews for an hour in the toddler pool. This was our first foray to the center, and I wasn't sure what to expect, but it turned out to be a lovely place...just what we need. There's a big lane pool with a zero-depth entry, perfect for toddlers, plus a large toddler pool. That pool is actually nice and deep and the water comes up to the top of Leah's shoulders when she is standing on the floor, so it's unlike those ankle-deep things that used to be a part of every community pool in the United States, which one knew were half full of chlorine and half of urine. This pool also had a little dolphin-shaped toddler slide which Leah enjoyed very much. The water was quite warm, luckily for me, and we both had a great time during our hour-long session.

On Saturday, we packed up all of our warmest clothes and drove to the village of Leven, which is about an hour away from St. Andrews along the Fife coast. We were in search of a little plastic drain clearer to fix the drain in the kids' shower, and David had read online that there was a store that sold them there. There's also a nice beach there, though, and a long promenade along the sea wall, so we packed a few snacks and some tea and headed off. When we arrived, we found the shop in a pedestrian-only high street, and though it turned out that the shop didn't have the little plastic drain clearer after all we did find a few other things of interest. We then headed towards the beach, after putting on every pair of windproof pants and shoes and gloves and scarves and hats that we brought. Leah found a friend on the playground and Emma and John started up a game of soccer on the grass nearby.

When we were too cold to bend our appendages any longer, we got back in the car and headed back towards St. Andrews but drove along the coast instead of taking the inland road. After a bit, we arrived in the fishing village of Pittenweem. Leah and John fell asleep on the drive, so David parked the car at the harbour facing all the fishing boats as they came back in from their morning fishing trips, and settled in with a book he had brought from home (he's wise to the fact that this situation arises quite a lot!)

While everyone else slept and read, Emma and I took a walk through the village. We were in search of St. Filian's cave, about which I had read in a guidebook at the house. I'm not a huge fan of caves, so I didn't intend to go in, though one can gain entry by picking up a key at one of the nearby cafes.

We also came upon a wee black cat on our walk (see photo above). After a short walk, we found a yarn shop that looked interesting. Since Emma is trying to teach herself to knit, we went in. There were two women inside, one a Scot and one an American who now lived in Pittenweem, and they both helped us figure out what kind of yarn would work best for Emma's project. I don't know much at all about yarn, but I could tell that there were some beautiful options here, so anyone who did know anything about yarn would have been quite impressed with this place.

Emma chose some blue-grey Shetland wool yarn called "Highland Mist" and I left with a wee "learn to crochet" kit. I actually do know how to crochet but I haven't done any crochet in about 30 years so I think a refresher is in order. The kit included enough yarn to make a facecloth, and that is sized just right for Leah's dolls, so in the end it worked out for three of us.

Next, Emma and I picked up John at the car, and the three of us wandered into the Cocoa Tree Cafe for a snack. I felt bad leaving David in the car, but chocolate isn't his favorite so he was happy to give this one a miss. The cafe was surprisingly crowded for such a sleepy little village, though I did notice that a number of our fellow cafe-goers had backpacking equipment with them, so I presume that many of them were taking a short break from a long coastal hike. The three of us were seated on a couch in the corner, and John ordered a piece of chocolate cake while Emma had a scone with raspberry jam. The chocolate cake was delicious but quite sophisticated (I think the sponge cake was soaked in a chocolate liqueur) so he didn't care for it. Emma's scone was delicious, and the raspberry jam was clearly homemade. I ordered a wee mug of dark hot chocolate which was lovely and thick, but seriously bitter. I also generously helped John out with his chocolate cake!