September on Speyside

The Speyside Way looking towards Dunlain Bridge

Grey Granite has just returned from a restorative week spent wandering about familiar places in the Nethy Bridge area. 

Evening sunlight lights up rowan berries on the Speyside Way just north of Nethy Bridge Station.

Rufus preferred exploring the woods, where there were interesting smells to investigate, to our Speyside Way walks. He is currently much embarrassed by his disastrous hair cut resulting the prospect of several months of  bad hair days. 

Rufus also enjoyed paddling in this accessible section of the Nethy. 

The great drifts of Field Scabious flowers we found growing on the banks of the Nethy seemed to attract vast numbers of bees.

A late harebell

The start of the King's Road Mill trail, one of Grey Granite's favourite walks through Dell Woods.

This ancient track was built by royal decree  in the 13th century in order to improve communications between Nethy and Tulloch. The track leads up through the pine trees where there is a good chance of seeing red squirrels, roe deer, crested tits and other birds at the feeder a short way up the track. Formerly the area was extensively used for logging operations. Logs were floated down the Nethy to join the Spey to reach sawmills on the coast.

Pines in Dell Woods, the undergrowth consists of heather, blaeberries, scrubby juniper and bearberry.

 bearberry (Arctostaphylos uva-ursi) 
There were beautiful waxy white flowers and scarlet scarlet berries on the shrubby plants.

During the course of the week an increasing number of bearberry leaves turned as bright a red as the berries.

An area of natural forest regeneration between the King's Road and the Tulloch Road.

Reflections in Loch Garten

And in Loch Mallachie

Gray Granite spent a considerable amount of time photographing the fascinating lichens on the trees in Dell Woods and by Loch Garten

Not quite ripe hazels in  Beachen Wood, Grantown