Delayed gratification at Christmas?

So first I reminded Gail that I have been a (relatively) Good Boy lately  and then I asked her what she was thinking of giving me for Christmas. 

She replied thus. "OK Nobby, since you were so compliant this year about wearing Bouncing Bertie's Nordic Snowflake jumper and posing nicely in the window front of our little tree, I am thinking about knitting you your very own sweater for next Christmas, so you don't have to wear Bertie's hand-me-downs."

I'm pretty confident that my readers, like me, will find her answer at best unsatisfactory, at worst, distinctly Scrooge like.

Christmas is not the season for delayed gratification, am I right? 

Sensing my disgruntlement, Gail continued.

"You know Nobby, I think we in the West all have too much stuff and I'd prefer to give you an experience you will remember and enjoy, and not some toy you will surely shred within five minutes of receiving."

Did you ever hear such a pile of virtue-signalling poppycock? I asked what sort of experience she had in mind anyway. 

"Well Nobby, I know how much you love visiting your relatives. So later today I am taking you for a two week holiday to Craigmancie Farm, and you will get to spend Christmas and New Year rampaging around the house and farmyard with your extended fox terrier family. Won't that be just splendid?"

(photo from Nobby's last stay at Craigmancie Farm) 

It pains me to admit it, but Gail might be right about this being a splendid way of ending the year. What's more, Gail is going to stay with her friend Marse in Tacoma (near Seattle) and I do believe that Marse's dog DB is very badly behaved. So I have high hopes of Gail returning home with renewed appreciation of my winning ways.

Happy Christmas to all our dear friends! This blog is now on a break until at least 5th January. 

Hyperactive tail-wagging

There are some humans whose very proximity prompts one's tail to enter a state of involuntary hyperactive wagging, even before one realises quite why one feels so excited. 

Of course, it didn't take long on Sunday morning to remember that Gail's friend M carries very delicious and generously sized biscuits in her coat pocket, and she can be relied upon to offer these to a certain enthusiastic fox terrier when we meet at the start of a walk.

To be honest, the treat bit was the highlight of our Sunday excursion along the river with M and J. 

I think I've mentioned before that it has been raining quite a lot in Aberdeen just lately. The walk came to an abrupt end when the path disappeared into the still swollen river Dee. 

I really don't know why Gail and J were wasting time debating the issue. I could have told them right away we were going to have to turn back!

Nature Friday strike

Perhaps my friends can tell me how I am supposed to come up with a Nature Friday posts when it has been raining heavily in Aberdeen almost every day for the past two weeks, the riverside paths are flooded, woodland walks deemed too muddy and down by the sea you get blown off your paws.

And then on the one day this week when it finally stopped raining, all I got was a pre-dawn walk skirting the puddles in the park, before Gail headed off to meet her friends for what looked like a fun bike ride. 

Oh, Gail has reminded me that she did take me for a sniff around Dunecht Estate and the sun put in a brief appearance. I guess this is the closest I'll get to a nature post this week...

I trust my friends will have more to show today than tussocks of soggy grass and trees bare of leaves...

A bit more ginger...?

Rupert

Rupert and Nobby

Have you ever noticed, on the photos of my monthly walks with the Aberdeenshire fox terrier gang, that the furs on my big brother Rupert's ears and face are a deeper and more vibrant rusty colour compared with my own more muted shades? 

I've often rather envied him this.

It is well known that I am not one to miss an opportunity. 

When Gail took me for a walk along the River Dee near Banchory, on a rainy afternoon earlier this week, I decided to go exploring in the woods. I slipped through a fence and and found something very interesting so I ignored Gail's increasingly panicky calls.

When I eventually reemerged, it seems Gail did not recognise me right away. Then it was:

"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO YOUR BEARD NOBBY!!!"

Back home, she immersed my head repeatedly in a bucket of water, but later still complained that I was ruining her attempts at a Christmas card photo with my Prince Harry-esque facial fur tint...

PS from Gail: I have no idea what Nobby found in the woods. At least it didn't smell, and does not seem to have harmed him. I'll admit I was panicking when he was out of sight because, after recent incessant rainfall, the river had become a torrent and I was terrified he might somehow have fallen in and been swept away. Plus, it was around 3:30 pm and getting dark. So I was pretty relieved to see Nobby, despite his newly acquired and rather alarming 'glow in the dark' beard colouring.

Star of the DDAC Christmas Party?

Really, I can't imagine what the humans were thinking. 

Who plans these Christmas parties anyway?

So last Tuesday, Gail drove us the two miles to Drumforskie Farm (base of the Deeside Dog Agility Club) and I was expecting to be let out of the car right away, as usual, and led into the big barn for my weekly agility rampage training session. 

But it was not to be. 

I was made to wait in the boot for ages and ages. 

Things finally looked up when I was released, and even better when inside the barn I spotted a spread of delicious foodables, laid out on the table right by the starting line of the 'jumping and tunnels' course.

But you will understand that I was also mighty confused by the set up. Why would any dog sit patiently at the start of the course when an aroma of delicious sausage rolls and Gevulde Speculaas (a Dutch speciality baked by Harrison's owner Teegan) was filling his nostrils?

Well finally, after some firm 'encouragement' by trainer Shaun, I reconciled myself to running over the jumps and through the tunnels rather than making a beeline for the treat table.

I think you'll agree if you watch the short video below that I put on an absolutely splendid performance. British viewers might recognise my homage to the late great Eric Morecambe's playing of the Grieg Piano Concerto. "All the right notes, but not necessarily in the right order"...

And no-one has ever doubted that I am an agile dog.

Oh if only one could say the same for my owner Gail...

Thanks go to Alison for the fine camera work.

Gail says I must also thank the rest of our friends at Deeside Dog Agility Club for tolerating my 'exuberance', both at the party last week and at the training sessions over the previous months...

The most attractive bark?

If I tell you this post is about having an attractive bark, you would be forgiven for thinking you'll be reading about my mellifluous vocal range.

But you would be wrong. (And not for the reason Gail suggests, namely that my bark is far from my most appealing feature.)

No, today we're taking a closer look at the bark on some of the trees I saw on a frosty walk around Loch Clair and Loch Coulin last Saturday. 

The lochs are fringed with a variety conifers and broadleafs, some native, some introduced. At this time of year, the tree trunk is the most conspicuous feature. Both Gail and I are agreed that the bark of the ancient Scots pine has the most 'character'. Don't you just love the muted pinkish-brown and grey colours and the gnarly textures?

Running a close second to the Scots pine is another common native species, the always delightful silver birch. 

The frosted birch trees look so pretty set against the blue waters of Loch Clair.

Further along the path, the smooth trunk of a beech provides a nice contrast to the pines and birches. Beech trees are native to southern parts of the UK, but not to the Torridon area.

 

Finally, we have another interloper, and rather a scruffy one in my opinion. Some sort of cypress, at a guess. (Gail's phone app was undecided.)

That's all for this week. Happy Nature Friday! 

The Kim Kardashians of the sheep world

Our Torridon cottage is surrounded by sheep - grazing the rough pasture and sometimes insolently blocking the narrow road. They are the reason why I always have to wear my lead whenever I exit the garden gate.

On our visit this week, I noticed that the sheep had newly painted rumps, most being green but a few, kept in a separately fenced off area, a rather lurid yellow. I instructed Gail to make enquiries.

Well it seems this is the sheep mating season and the paint indicates the ewes who have recently enjoyed the 'services' of a ram. The colour indicates the breed, green ones being your bog standard Cheviots and the yellow ones a type known as Beltex (Belgian Texel). 

The Beltexes are renowned for their heavily muscled hindquarters. One might call them the Kim Kardashians of the sheep world...

Although to be honest, under all that wool, they look pretty much the same to me.

Coire Mhic Nobby-uil

One of Gail and my favourite Torridon walks is the low level route along Coire Mhic Nobuil, between the stark, precipitous peaks of Liathach, Beinn Dearg's forbidding buttresses and the somewhat gentler curves of Beinn Alligin. The start point is only about two miles from the cottage, and within just a couple of minutes of leaving the car park you are striding (or trotting) through scenery of awe-inspiring grandeur, as close to a pristine wilderness as anywhere you'll find on our crowded island.

A narrow, stony path up leads you up the glen, alongside the trail a crystal clear mountain stream cascades over the ancient Torridonian rocks, and if you're lucky you might spot a golden eagle soaring above. Us pups can roam free - no farm livestock for us to worry, but the occasional excitement of a red deer to chase!

The land is owned by the National Trust for Scotland so one would assume it to be safe from any unwelcome developments.

Not so!

How horrid to learn of a plan to disfigure this precious landscape by installing a 25 m tall telecommunications mast right in its heart.The proposed mast would be highly visible to the many hikers (and of course their dogs) who treasure the area for its unspoilt character, but it would do nothing to enhance mobile connectivity for local communities or businesses. To access the mast for maintenance, the path would need to be widened to allow vehicles in, and the whole experience of venturing into Coire Mhic Nobuil would be quite altered, and not for the better.

I am pleased to report that Gail has formally objected to the mast proposal and will be attending a public meeting in the Torridon Community Centre, organised by the National Trust for Scotland on Monday evening. 

I do really hope this eyesore is never built.

Oh and did I just spot a vole?

An encounter with the Union Street hedgehog

One rainy afternoon this week, Gail took me into the city centre to meet a prickly resident. 

Prickly in appearance and prickly by nature, it turned out. 

I tried to engage him in conversation, but he was reluctant to remove his earphone or lift his eyes from his computer screen.

I asked politely if he had a blog, but no response. 

I tried small talk. "Rather wet today isn't it?" But to no avail. 

Eventually he snapped at me. "Look just go away. Can't you see I don't like dogs? Oh if only my artist had painted me higher up a wall so you guys couldn't target me with your horrid smelly pee..."

I felt he was exaggerating the problem and pointed out that surely not many dogs go for their daily walks on Union Street. 

"You'd be surprised", he countered in a surly tone, and went back to studying his laptop.

When we got home, Gail looked up the artist. He signs himself Edward von Lõngus but this is apparently a pseudonym and, Banksy style, his real identity is a bit of a mystery. We do know he is Estonian. 

Happy Nature Friday to blog hop hosts the LLB Gang, and to all the other lovely 'hoppers'!