The quiet surroundings of Killin may feel like the ideal place to escape the horrors of a brutal invasion.
But for Alla Tupchiy-Kochetova, her time in the Stirlingshire countryside is an unexpected detour in a year that has seen her and her family lose everything in the Ukraine conflict which started just over a year ago.
On February 24, their lives in the coastal city of Mariupol were turned upside down as Russian shells shook the windows and walls of their home at 4.30am - and then the first shell hit the city itself later that afternoon.
With panic and chaos going on around them, 51-year-old Alla - along with husband Sergei, daughters Kateryna (30) and Polina (eight) - made the move to flee their home city.
It was a decision that would prove to be the most important they ever made - a rocket completely destroyed their family home just 40 minutes later.
On the anniversary of the invasion last Friday, Alla has shared her story of escaping a warzone and making her way to Stirling.
Alla said: “I left the city with my daughters, and my husband was forced to stay, our parents remained in the city.
“My husband spent 62 painful days in the ruined Mariupol and during this time we lost everything - our home and our business. Everything was destroyed and burned to the ground.
“After March 2, all communication with the city was lost, it was very scary. My daughters and I were in Kyiv, where we also had to hide from shelling in a bomb shelter.
“The strangest thing was not to know anything about the fate of loved ones in Mariupol.”
Sergei was eventually able to leave the frontline at the end of April, but was forced to take on a death-defying journey through Russia and Georgia to escape the besieged Mariupol.
With Sergei banned from re-entering Ukraine because of his exit route, the family left for a refugee centre in Moldova.
It was there they received their first piece of good news for some time - there were sponsors waiting in the UK to accept them into their family.
But just as things finally seemed to be heading in the family’s direction, another massive curve ball was thrown at their plans to make a new life in Scotland.
“There were almost four long months of waiting for permission to enter the UK and all of this time we had to stay in the refugee centre in Moldova.
“The move to Scotland took two weeks, and volunteers helped us everywhere along the way.
“We were supposed to arrive in Edinburgh, but the tests were not over.
“The apartment where we were supposed to live was flooded with water by the neighbours and so our sponsors had to take us to their homes in Killin, waiting for repairs in the apartment.
“We were received very warmly, now in Scotland we have not just friends-sponsors, but our new friendly family.
“We are now learning English, our youngest daughter is studying at school and soon we hope to move to Edinburgh, where we hope to work.”
The family are now expecting to spend another three years in Scotland while they attempt to rebuild their lives and await for their return to a destroyed home city.
Alla adds: “My mother and my husband’s mother, our relatives are still in Mariupol. Their houses are completely destroyed, they are forced to live in someone else’s surviving housing.
“Unfortunately, we have nowhere to return to, there is no home or business.
“ The most difficult thing now is to start dreaming again and make plans for the future.”
