Mud, Mud, Glorious Mud!

 One of the glories of nature, surely?

I dream of being a hippo in another life...

Happy Nature  Friday!

Usurped...

I'll admit I don't often feel sorry for my border collie 'friend' Hemp (who is not always friendly towards me). After all, Hemp is the main reason I was left home alone on Christmas Day with only my new toy 'Crinkly Rudolf' for company, while Gail went round to Hemp's family for dinner. But afterwards Gail showed me this photo, and told me how Hemp had suddenly materialised out of nowhere, or more likely the kitchen, a nanosecond after his owner Jamie had lifted cute little niece Ina onto his lap, and how Hemp then stared resentfully at Ina for a good ten minutes. And I felt for him, I really did. No-one likes a usurper...

Meanwhile, away from the Christmas festivities, we have been enjoying lots of muddy country walks. 

But you know, it's odd how inconsistent our humans, the supposedly intelligent species, can be. 

Gail is always banging on about how she loves the smell of the fresh country air. 

But when I apply myself to the serious business attaching some of those 'country' smells to my shoulder furs, so we can enjoy them at home too, for some reason Gail gets all cross...

And I get put in the shower.

A nearly perfect woodland walk...

May is a lovely month for a woodland ramble, don't you agree? 

Trees newly in leaf, so fresh and green, the undergrowth delicately dotted with violets, wood sorrel and anemones. 

Yesterday Gail and I went exploring the woods in the grounds of Crathes Castle. It's been a while since we were last there but I distinctly recall there used to be some excellent muddy sections, soft on the paws and beautifully squelchy.

How disappointing then, to find that nowadays the path follows boring boardwalks over all the boggy bits. 

Gail seems to think it a "good thing" that my paws were still relatively clean at the end of the walk.

But I cannot agree. 

Happy Nature Friday friends! And once again thank you so much to the Rosy and the LLB gang for hosting the blog hop.

But where is all the mud?

I expect you will be looking at the picture above and thinking, "Whoa there Bertie, look at you galloping so carefree through the verdant forest - what a tip top time you're having".

And you would be right. Up to a point.

But something important was missing.

I searched high and low but I could not find it anywhere.


In the end I had to stop and ask.

"But Gail, where is all the mud?"


Normally, at this stage in the walk my paws should be nicely coated in a layer of the squelchy brown stuff and, on a good day I would be jumping into the car with a full set of stylish dark "socks" all the way up to my knees, enhancing my already much admired natural markings.

But no. In Aberdeen we have had almost no rain for weeks. This is most unnatural! One set of American visitors have returned home to the Seattle area under the mistaken impression that Scotland is a country blessed with many dry warm days and cloud-free skies.

Tomorrow we are heading across to Torridon for a short break.

It's always wetter on the West Coast. Surely I'll find some mud there?

Oh. Gail is telling me that wildfires not far from our cottage made the national news a few days ago.

Can this really be true?

I shall be reporting back early next week.

Winter grooming challenges...

Did I mention that it's rather muddy here now the snow is gone?

And to think Gail sometimes complains that I look a mess after my winter walks ...

Last Sunday I was on best behaviour and (mostly) stuck to the footpath during our walk from  Doonie's Rare Breeds Farm to Cove Harbour and back.

But I still had to have my paws washed in the kitchen sink when we got home.

Traditions

The traditional Boxing Day walk...

The traditional aftermath...

No answer needed...

Searching for snow

Gail promised me we'd find some snow on our Sunday walk at Glen Tanar.

Things didn't look too promising at the Visitor Centre.

And those hills covered in white looked very far off.


So we trudged through an awful lot of this…


Before eventually coming across a small patch of this…


Then it was a long walk back through more of this...


And finally, after ten mostly muddy miles, I got dumped in this….

At the end of yet another muddy walk

A tantrum.

"I don't care if you have just cleaned the inside of the Mini.

I am not going to let you wash me in that stream!

It is the middle of winter you know."

The right decision

Us dogs get to know our humans pretty well don't we?

So I think you can trust me to give you an accurate report of Gail's thought processes first thing Saturday morning. Here goes:

"Hmmm, I suppose I really should go Christmas shopping today, so I don't end up rushing around in a last minute panic once again. Oh dear but the shops will be terribly busy and anyway I haven't a clue what to buy, everyone has too many things already don't they? And it would be a shame to waste a nice bright day by being indoors. One needs to soak up every possible ray of sun at this time of year -  they say rickets is on the increase 'cos folk stay inside too much. Plus Darren Bett on the BBC forecast heavy rain for Scotland tomorrow. And then there's Bertie. I really owe him a good long walk, after sending him off to kennels last weekend. See him sat there looking at me with that adorable, optimistic, trusting little face. Yes, the Christmas stuff can wait. But where to go? It's so muddy everywhere at the moment...(thinks for a minute or two).  I know, we'll visit the Forvie Nature Reserve. The ground by the coast is sandy and well drained. And the terns aren't nesting at this time of year, so the dune area won't be closed off. The wind today is light, so no danger of Bertie getting sand grains blown in his eyes on the beach. If we complete the circuit of the Reserve - estuary, dunes, beach, cliff path and back - that's at least seven miles, so Bertie might even be a bit tired by the end. Yes that's what we'll do, better get going, it's a thirty minute drive and we've only a few hours before it's dark again..."

All in all, I think we can congratulate Gail on a good decision. As for presents, there's always Amazon gift vouchers.

But I must say she was wrong about the (lack of) mud.