Walk on by.....

I had an early morning date at Hazlehead Park with my Westie friend Rosie. 

I hoped to impress her with my smart winter attire.

Do you think I succeeded? 

 

Snow bonus walk on Christmas Eve

On Christmas Eve in Aberdeen we wake up to the first snowfall of the season. 

What's not to like about snow?

Suddenly the world seems magical and new, all sparking clean and white. And even better, Gail's cycling 'girls' for once see sense and abandon their usual Thursday morning ride in favour of a walk across Hazlehead Park and golf course.

And yours truly is invited along, despite being neither female nor a fan of the bicycle.

Oh we had a fine morning hike through the snow - and slush and mud. The destination was the restaurant at Dobbie's garden centre, where I was allowed into the special 'dog-friendly' seating area and stood patiently while the ladies took advantage of the last opportunity for indoor coffee and scones before the cafés are all locked down again until heaven only knows when. (Gail predicts 23 March 2021).

It would have been the perfect outing were it not for the payback on returning home...

Happy Christmas!

Bertie spots a spalted beech

Well I just had to take a closer look when I saw this recently felled trunk of a beech tree in Hazlehead Park the other day.

Apparently the dark lines are caused by fungus, and the effect is known as 'spalting'.

Pretty, isn't it? Let's see close up.

Happy Nature Friday friends! On this particular date I am especially thankful to Arty, Jakey and Rosy for their wonderful blog hop celebrating the beauties of our natural world. For otherwise my post today might have been totally filled with photos of Gail and me looking sad and miserable as we mourn the UK's misguided departure from the European Union...

Flower Friday: Azaleas galore!

When one thinks of colour in reference to my home city Aberdeen, I'm afraid the phrase that comes most readily to mind is 'Fifty Shades of Grey'. ..

But thankfully, every May/June in our Hazlehead Park the Azalea Garden bursts into life, and us poor colour-deprived Aberdonians can for a few short weeks enjoy the sort of vibrant and glorious display which those of you in sunnier climes might take for granted.

To celebrate our friend Rosy's 'Flower Friday', it is my privilege to take you on a visit to Hazlehead.

No answer needed...

Bertie keeps things in perspective

"Oh look, isn't he cute. You don't see many wire-haired fox terriers doing agility".

So said a lady to her friend when she spotted me at the Granite City Dog Agility Show last weekend. It was towards the end of the second day of competition. Gail smiled and replied:

"Hmmm, there might be a good reason for that." Then, under her breath, and less smilingly, she muttered something about "a catalogue of disasters".

You know, I was hurt that Gail chose to regard my six straight eliminations, mostly a result of my wholly understandable reluctance to enter a dark tunnel with a soft flappy piece of material blocking the exit, as disastrous.

Much better to look on the bright side of life, is it not? I decided it was time to enumerate the many positives from the weekend so far:

1. It had been warm and sunny on both days and even better, Gail remembered her hat and her sun block so her pale and freckly skin did not turn lobster coloured, unlike that of one or two of the other humans present.

2. We were fortunate that fellow Deeside Dog Agility Club members Arlene, Kevin and Jo were on hand and happy to push the Mini out of the mud after the shady parking spot Gail so carefully selected turned out to be in the middle of a bog.

3. We were also lucky that Kevin has a sense of humour and did not mind everyone laughing when his face was spattered with mud when Gail finally managed to shift the car.

4. We were delighted to meet fellow blogger 'Vonnie' from Fife and see her talented Shelties fly round the ring.

5. We were very proud of DDAC member Jake, judging his first show, at age eighteen the youngest, and by a mile the smartest of the judges on duty over the weekend.

6. Once past the dreaded 'soft tunnel' I put in an impressively energetic and mostly accurate run on my sixth and final class, at a stage in the game when many other dogs were fading.

Well I could have gone on, but Gail still didn't seem convinced that the weekend had been a great success.

I then remembered that behind the agility field at Hazlehead Park lies a very special garden, and I decided to take Gail the short walk round there for a break.

Look here I am in the Piper Alpha Memorial Rose Garden.

The statue in the middle was built to commemorate the 167 men who died when a North Sea oil platform was engulfed by fire and collapsed, back in 1988.

What a tragic waste of lives. Now that was truly a disaster.

After a few minutes contemplating the roses, whose delicate fragrance was strong enough as to be detectable even by feeble human scent organs, Gail agreed to amend her evaluation of my agility performance from "disastrous" to "a minor hiatus in a soon-to-be glittering agility career".

And she gave me a big hug.