It’s been a long wait for summer to hit here in Sconnie Botland but the timing could not have been sweeter. This week is our biggest of the summer here in North Berwick. After a so-so day that allowed our barnstorming Highland Games another major success of forty-odd bands from around the globe that gave 10,000 people a ‘grand day out’, we were hoping for some sun as Fringe by the Sea took over for the balance of this week.

It took off with a bang—the Manfreds blew the roof off the even-larger spiegeltent we put up this year and had the 600+ people crammed inside singing along, with Paul Jones having his usual positive impact with the ladies in the audience. For those who missed this superb one-nighter, they’re on tour this year and back in Scotland in November.

West Beach and Craigleith, August 9th 2012

Today was one of those idyllic days when the sea seems so azure and inviting that it’s not just the kids that are tempted into the water. Trains were pouring hundreds of people into the town (lucky for them—parking spaces were like hen’s teeth), the High Street and harbour were mob scenes and emergency supplies of ice cream had to be blue-lighted down from Luca’s in Musselburgh.

Offshore was the great spectacle of the Laser 2000 UK Nationals being avoid by sundry trip boats taking sunburned visitors out around the islands. Altogether, it was the sort of day that you remember from your childhood—and the many kids running about today will have it etched in their memories that will probably bring them back in a couple of decades to pass it on to theirs.

East Beach with Seabird Centre & Spiegeltent beyond Paddling Pool, plus Lasers racing near Craigleith

While everyone had been complaining that this summer had been the pits, a couple of days of this magic and all is forgiven!

East Beach and Bass Rock, North Berwick, Augus 9th 2012