A sparkling birch tree and a question of ethics

Happy Nature Friday friends! 

This week's offering is the birch tree we pass on the way to Duthie Park each day. It has just burst into leaf and in the early morning, if the skies are clear and a breeze blowing, the leaves sparkle and dance in the sunlight, a quietly lovely spectacle set against the austere grey of the granite buildings.

You might be interested to know that the building just beyond the tree is the 'Inn at the Park', the place where Gail and I attend the fortnightly pub quiz, along with our friends Kirsty and Cathy (aka 'Team Indecisives').

I appreciate this off topic for the LLB Gang's Nature Friday blog hop, but I want to talk to you today about an ethical dilemma prompted by one of the quiz questions this week.

You will remember that my role in the quiz team is as their much-valued mascot.

And you will know that, obviously, consulting eternal sources of information such as Google and Wikipedia is strictly forbidden during a pub quiz.

So what do you think about this? When asked "how many teeth does a dog have?", Gail decided to try and open my mouth to check that her team had the right answer.

Yes, I know, shocking behaviour, utterly shocking. 

Rest assured friends, I was resolved to protect the integrity of the competition and totally refused to unclench my jaw (even when offered a treat). It is surely incumbent upon any respectable mascot to ensure his team does not cheat, don't you agree?

I am relieved to tell you that 'Team Indecisives' answered correctly - us dogs do have 42 teeth. It would have been embarrassing for them to get this one wrong, as Kirsty is a vet.

Now veering even further off topic, Gail is insisting I tell everyone how her team of three late middle aged(?) ladies scored a record breaking (for them) 8/10 on the sports round on Wednesday, helped by Gail knowing that renowned 1970s and 80s football manager Brian Clough played for both Middlesborough and Sunderland in his professional career before he became a coach.

And no, I have no idea either why Gail seems so ridiculously proud of knowing this piece of esoteric sports trivia.

Sometimes one just has to humour one's humans, I find....

Not such a great idea this time...

You might recall my post at the start of this month, in which I related how, on an outing to Castle Fraser, our party of intrepid hikers ignored a 'trail closed' sign and was rewarded with a delightful and not at all difficult walk to a tranquil beauty spot. 

Well now it's time to come clean (literally and metaphorically). 

What I learned last Friday in Foggieton Woods was that ignoring signs is not always such a great idea.

I'll let the pictures do the talking...

Nobby and Doddie

Meet my new friend, six month old border terrier Doddie. He's a fine wee fellow, don't you think? 

And guess what? We have something in common (in addition to being adorable terriers, of course). 

Doddie and I are both proud to be named after men who, in their different ways, were successful both on the sporting field and as human beings. 

Admittedly, only older folk with long memories will recall my namesake, footballer Nobby Stiles, famous as a member of England's 1966 World Cup winning team and known for his 'terrier-like' take no prisoners approach to the game. Near-sighted, short in stature, with premature hair loss and false teeth, Nobby Stiles was a reminder that sporting heroes can come in all shapes and sizes. Off the field he was by all accounts a modest and likeable man, loved by his family and friends. He died of dementia in 2020. 

Doddie Weir was a much honoured international rugby player who appeared for Scotland throughout the 1990s. He was diagnosed with motor neurone disease in 2016 and in the following six years up to his death in 2022, aged 52, he had raised many millions of pounds for MND research. His colourful personality and his bravery in the face of his condition gained him a new generation of fans all over the world and raised the profile of this cruel disease. 

Gail says that my new friend and I have much to live up to.

Are magnolias "old hat"?

When we returned to Aberdeen earlier this week, Gail was thrilled to see magnolia bushes out in bloom, one in a garden opposite our house, and the other near the entrance to Duthie Park. She took some photos of them on our early morning walk.

But when I suggested this would be an excellent subject for the LLB Gang's Nature Friday, Gail rather pooh-pooh-ed the idea. 

"Nobby, I suspect most of your readers live in places where the magnolia flowers appeared weeks, if not months, ago. Although we might find it exciting that these gorgeous white and off-white blooms have finally put in an appearance in our neighbourhood, I fear others will regard the news as rather 'old hat'."

But I disagreed, reminding Gail that we live at 57 degrees North - that's further North than Moscow and Copenhagen, and almost as northerly as Juneau, Alaska - and just 'cos our spring flowers come later than in many parts of the world, it doesn't make them any the less special.  Quite the opposite in fact. 

So I'm posting the pictures anyway.

Do you have magnolias where you live? 

On top of the world

What a relief! After being 'confined to barracks' all Sunday while Storm Kathleen continued to rage, the winds finally abated somewhat on Sunday night.

Even better, our nice Torridon neighbours invited Gail and me to join them on a hillwalking expedition the next day.

Here I am on the Beinn Alligin ridge. You just can't beat that 'top of the world' feeling.

Oh and yes, it was still a wee bit breezy on the summit. 

In fact, the humans deemed it too 'breezy' to continue along the ridge and do the full circuit, so we stopped at the first peak, Tom na Gruagaich, and went down again.

It's a steep ascent/descent and I did notice Gail walking a bit funny the following morning. But don't worry, I was fine!