Forest comparisons

So Gail has been going on and on about all the splendid forest walks she enjoyed in the Puget Sound area over Christmas and New Year.

Apparently the trees were bigger than here, the ferns and mosses more abundant, the fungi slimier and the stream crossings more challenging.

Soon I'd heard quite enough, and it was time to go out for a walk and remind Gail that we have lovely woodlands here in Aberdeenshire too. 

And there's still one thing we do even better than Washington state...

MUD!! 

A biblical mis-quotation

"The sun shines on the righteous". That's what they say, isn't it? Sounds about right to me. 

Oh, Gail is telling me to check my facts, and that I am guilty of selective quotation. She directed me to the old family bible (King James version) and to Matthew Chapter 5, Verse 45: 

"That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust."

She says Matthew must have been thinking about fox terriers when he wrote this section of his gospel.

Which is of course ridiculous.

Happy Nature Friday friends!

Full disclosure time....

So Gail and I have been staying down in Dunoon with our dear friend YAM-aunty for a few days.

Everything has been nice. 

Nice walkies in the forest.

Nice visits to the café.

Nice new friends by the River Eachaig.

(Especially Myrtle the Airedale. She was really Nice.)

Then there was Nice digging on the beach.

Exceptionally Nice weather 

And of course Nice cuddles with YAM-aunty. 

So it all adds up to Nice Nobby, right? 

We don't really have to tell everyone about YAM-aunty's favourite woolly hat, do we Gail? 

Oh apparently we do. 

And apparently the fact that this treasured family heirloom now has a hole chewed in the side and is mysteriously minus its bobble is considered to be a Bad Thing.

Naughty Nobby? Surely not! 

The path less travelled

Little did I know what was in store on Saturday morning when Gail and I set off into the woods near Finzean with our friends M and J.

This intrepid couple (and perfect team) might just have celebrated their 55th wedding anniversary, but their taste for adventure is undimmed.

I had assumed we would stick to the main forest tracks, but no, our friends were all for exploring uncharted territory.

With the path alternating between indistinct and non-existent, I heroically help scout a route through the dense undergrowth.

Crucial decisions were required on how best to navigate the many obstacles along the way. 

As we penetrated deeper into the forest, hunger set in and I kept a lookout for wolves* while M and J foraged for energy-boosting sustenance.. 

There was a pause to 'regroup' before making the difficult decision to turn around and  push back to the car park. 

It was touch and go, but we made it just in time!

(Just in time, that is, to reach the nearby Finzean Farm Shop where the humans had reserved a table for lunch at 1:30 pm.....)

*Gail would like to point out that wolves have actually been extinct in the wild in Scotland for several hundred years.