Walking the rainbow trail

Kingcups by the Swine Burn

The RAF Tower from the Lochielair field

This afternoon Grey Granite and Rufus enjoyed an hour's amble through a sea of fragrant, coconut scented gorse between Pitheughie and Lochielair. As an avoidance tactic, they wandered through the park behind Lochielair and along the Swine Burn before cutting through the gorse between the Red Well and Pitheughie. The warmer weather of the last few days (17C and desultory light rain this afternoon) has had a huge impact on the flora. There is suddenly an abundance of wild flowers; violets and a single pink campion along the banks of the burn, creeping willow showing yellow pollen bearing catkins in the shortest grass. A semi permanent pool, which seems to have built up during the last wet twelve months near the new pond, is already almost choked with ivy leaved crowfoot - in flower. Surprisingly there were sycamore seedlings germinating near the mill lade, their survival seems unlikely. Most striking of all there were huge eye catching clumps of bright marsh marigolds in the burn below Pitheughie, down on the shore by the Red Well and the Swine Burn. The scurvy grass has grown taller and the celandines are fully out by the burn. In the boggy area below Piheughie the reddish leaves of marsh burnet can be clearly identified. This annual re-emergence in the usual places strikes Grey Granite as nothing short of miraculous and puts her in mind of the concluding 'tangled bank' passage of Origin of Species.

Equally miraculously, Rufus reveals himself as being the ideal companion for walking the rainbow trail of the Wastart, making no demands on thoughts, not caring how fast or slowly we progress nor minding about dubs, delays and back trackings, existing in his own parallel doggy world.

Thrift and house martins

Crimson beads of buds on the thrift at Craig Ogston and the first of the house martins swooping amongst the dunes and buds deep in the cowslip leaves at the Water of Philorth, so summer really is on the way. Warmer weather this weekend may induce the first of the violets to flower. This time last year there were violets, cuckoo flowers and kingcups (marsh marigolds) in bloom over the Wastart. So far we have seen none yet this year -despite Rufus taking a very close interest and inspecting every out crop of rock and tuft of vegetation as he explores the Wastart.

The Woods at Philorth

Grey Granite and Rufus explored the woods at Philorth this afternoon and rejoiced to have the freedom to wander about at will whenever they chose. The margins of the wood are carpeted with celandines, golden in the sunshine. Deeper in the wood there is a dense carpet of wild garlic, the spathes ready to burst open. The dense, pungent foliage was in places taller than Rufus who explored eagerly bounding through the leaves, emerging with a distinctly Gallic smell. The reddish look to the trees which we noticed at the weekend comes from the sycamore buds which are just starting to burst. Sycamore seems to be the dominant species - hundreds of seedlings are growing in the dubby path. There are also occasional larches, with the most wonderful new green needles, a magnificent horse chestnut just starting to open, and elders with their fingered leaves already formed. Here and there are elms, again just budding. Grey Granite suddenly recalled the Browning poem, 'Home Thoughts from Abroad, memorised 47 years ago 'and who ever wakes in England, now that April's there /Sees that the brushwood sheath round the elm tree's bowl is in tiny leaf '.

This walk was a taster carrying the eagerly anticipated promise of longer explorations further afield as Rufus develops.

Formartine and Buchan Way

Today Grey Granite and Rufus went for a late afternoon walk along 'The Line' setting out at Kirkton they reached a point level with the Cairnbulg Castle woods before turning back. This will gradually be extended as Rufus grows. The Line comes a poor second to the Wastart, stretching as it does straight ahead like a Roman road and without the interest of the Strichen section, but did allow Rufus to explore (on his Flexilead) and is a relatively quiet place to walk. Grey Granite was profoundly irked by a gormless young mother drifting along, chatting on her mobile, totally oblivious to her toddler daughter who was merrily decapitating the daffodils. There were huge patches of Bishop weed colonising part of the verge, sprawls of celandines, scurvy grass, shepherds purse and dandelions in addition to the decapitated daffodils. opposite Philorth halt the willow catkins are going over and in the Philorth woods the tops of the birch trees, seen from a distance have the reddish look of being about to bud. Some trees in the wood already have a greenish cast, this may be investigated tomorrow. Interestingly there is, as yet no sign of budding on the wild roses down here although garden roses and the dog roses at Peathill are in growth.

Close encounter

This afternoon Grey Granite had the delight of taking Rufus for his first Wastart walk. This proved to be very exciting for them both. Rufus was at first wary of the sea, which he has never seen before and of wide open spaces but rapidly gained confidence. He remained on a short lead but Grey Granite will use the extending lead next trip. The two squeaky gates were considered particularly threatening but the burn and patches of dubs were no obstacle and he ploughed happily through them. Rufus showed his terrier nature, sniffing about excitedly, grubbing in scrubby clumps of heather and obviously revelling in the wild environment. We walked as far as the Stone Steps, further than intended but Rufus showed no signs of being tired and was in fact so excited that we went back to Dingwall Street walking to heel along North Street instead of across 'The Parkie' in order to provide calming down time before the car. Botanically the walk was a little disappointing, plants are later in flowering than usual and the grass is still dry and sere looking. There were, however, a few celandines and coltsfoot by the Swine Burn, a good growth of comfery leaves, many dandelions and the first signs of scurvy grass opening in more sheltered places.
Grey Granite rejoices in the freedom of retirement and Rufus to enjoy it with.

The Rite of Spring

According to Richard Mabey and Tony Evans writing in 'The Flowering of Britain' (Hutchinson & Co 1980) Spring, as measured by the first flower openings of given species, advances from South to North in Britain across flat ground at the rate of roughly 2 miles per hour.

The progress of this gradual greening of Britain may be seen at:
http://www.naturescalendar.org.uk/findings/spring_from_outer_space2

Easter

Grey Granite notices that suddenly, despite alternate days of foul weather and sunshine, there are many clumps of daffodils flowering at the roadside, Spring is prevailing. The clump pictured are garden escapees rather than the wild double variety. As they were being photographed on Good Friday the first small tortoiseshell butterfly of the year was enjoying the warmth of the sun. There had been a ground frost earlier in the morning and snow still lies on the Mormond Hill. surely not waiting for more? At Pitsligo Castle and in the ash trees at Peathill the raucous rooks are busily increasing their nests. The same nests used year after year and the prudent rooks 'house keep' all year round tidying and repairing storm damage as necessary. Activity is greatest in Spring, at Peathill

an optimistic rook struggled to lift a twig about 30 inches long.Such determination!