New Year's Day

A tranquil start to the year at the Broch beach

Rufus enjoys a New Year's Day dip in the Kessock Burn

Rufus makes a new friend

Grey Granite and Rufus went to Strichen to meet Dr. Anne and her friend J.D. at the Community Park.  After coffee at the Lodge they walked along the line towards Brucklay. It was a pleasant cold morning, with pockets of frost and frozen hailstones along the way. An attempt to visit the stone circle had to be aborted because of the impassable muddy quagmire at the top of the path. Along the Line we saw several large flocks of small birds, mainly chaffinches.

The renovated Lodge, recently developed as a coffee shop,  provides delicious scones and is an excellent meeting place.

The grim ruins of Strichen House seen from the Line.



We walked along the Line to the crossing with the A981 then doubled back to leave the Line at the bridge carrying  a minor road to Viewbank over the Line. The steepish steps were very slippery and hoar frost lingered on the vegetation.



We returned to Strichen along the road past Borrowhill Wood, with views  towards Hunters' Lodge and the White Horse on Mormond Hill.

The path through Newton Wood was obstructed by trees, some we thought victims of the recent gales, others probably deliberately felled.

Rufus, Dr Anne, J.D. and Grey Granite, all being in their primes, negotiated the obstacle without difficulty, despite the predictions to the contrary of an elderly passerby.

The swans on the lake rather haughtily turned their backs when they realised that we were not bearing gifts of food.

Hoar frost

Today, in sharp contrast to yesterday, the temperature was only a seasonal 3c by mid morning, in sheltered spots away from the sun there was slight hoar frost as can be seen on these cow parsley leaves. We walked round Chapelton of Phingask and Merryhillock noticing a siskin, a flock of chaffinches feeding on the hedgerows, starlings on telegraph wires, geese flying overhead in a colossal noisy 'v' of barbed wire and hearing a distant curlew.

Boxing Day Walk: A riddle from Victorian Rathen

Morning sunlight catching an ivy clad sycamore in a corner of St Ethernan's Kirkyard

An extraordinary mild Boxing Day brought temperatures of around 15c by mid morning. We walked from St Ethernan's Kirkyard in Rathen over the hill to Rathen station. The air was very clear and there were wide views over the countryside, bathed in pale sunlight. Despite the mild weather there was quite a strong wind, particularly noticeable coming back over the Hill of Ardglassie. We saw deer slots in the sandy track, Rufus checked out the rabbit burrows and a buzzard wheeled over the Corncraigs woods. The recent mild,  frost free weather has  brought out a fresh crop of yellow flowers on the gorse,  we also noted that it has enabled the 'Uncle Tammie' of  this riddle, collected in Rathen by Rev Walter Gregor, to  be active.

As I gaed ower the Brig o' Dee

I met Uncle Tammie

Wi'a the wardle on's back-

Wasna he a clever mannie?

Grey Granite challenges blog readers to solve the riddle.

 

Philorth Woods, after the solstice.

This being the first day following the winter solstice, there was a sense of a new beginning,  the year having turned and the increase in daylight having begun, however imperceptibly. We celebrated with a walk along the Line from Kirkton, past Philorth Halt and on towards Rathen Station, leaving the Line to walk towards Mains of Philorth returning Philorth Halt through the wood. The Water of Philorth was running fast and high, many of the fields along our route were partly flooded, there were geese grazing in Wet Fold.  The gorse which had been so conspicuously bright a couple of weeks ago has faded, only a few daisies and dandelions remain in flower, the countryside reduced to duns and dull greens. However, there are the early forms of catkins on elders, willow trees along the Line have well formed buds and the sunlight lit up the trees in the wood. 



The dubby track in to the wood from Mains of Philorth was loud with the cawing of rooks.



There were incessantly cawing rooks circling above the pines and larches  .




The clay drainage pipes stacked by the track caught the sunlight and seemed to glow warmly.
(The colours have been emphasised by increasing the saturation level of the image.) 



Already there are fat flower buds on the despised rhododendrons which line the driveway.



The spears of snowdrops, which will eventually carpet the wood are starting to emerge.

Sunlight and riders, looking towards Home Farm

Wildlife Watching

Grey Granite has been concerned lately by the disrespectful treatment of wild animals in unnatural situations for human entertainment; pandas in Edinburgh and camels in Ellon.  She came upon this gentle and evocative poem by the Irish poet, Bernard O'Donoghue and thought that it captured perfectly the  fascinating privilege of watching wild animals go about their daily lives in their natural habitats, undisturbed and oblivious to human presence.

Romesdal Burn entering Loch Snizort, haunt of  dippers, heron, cormorants and the elusive otter                  

Hover

For John O'Donoghue

After our sighting of the kingfisher,

humming straight up the river in its path

of turquoise, we would stop at the bridge

several times a day, hoping and praying.

We saw the dipper, now a bird as common

as the blackbird, corncrake or the crane;

often we'd see the heron keeping an eye

on its schedule, before lifting off

into the wind and swinging in a big arc

towards Cullen with the wind to its back.

But shortly before we left, among the rocks

beneath the outlaw's cave, we caught a still

rarer glimpse: the otter, briefly incautious,

appearing in the sun, then gone. And now

it was him we went back to look for.

We didn't see him again. But we've marked

the rock he paused on, so we'll return

next year and find him, sure of the place

above the water where his holt is, dark

and sheltered from the bandogs of the day.

Seasonal Sighting

A gathering of Santas about to take part in a seasonal fun run in the Broch