Leader of the pack

Gosh I had a very important task this Sunday, leading Gail and her friends on a walk in Glen Tanar.

Apparently this was a very special day for Gail, which is why she had gathered her friends all around her.

I shall tell you more about it later in the week, when I have overcome my disappointment at not being given any of Gail and Kirsty's picnic lunch...


PS Thanks to Mark for allowing me to use his wonderful photos!

Nature Friday: Sea Scene

For any of my friends who've had a too busy week - why not stop and rest a moment and sniff the sea air with me?

Mass disobedience

I am wondering, what is your stance on obeying rules and regulations, even when they seem inappropriate, or perhaps superfluous?

Why bring this up just now, you ask.

Well, Gail took me down to the Aberdeen City beach yesterday. Although dogs are allowed to run free on most of the two mile long stretch of sand, there is a section in the centre, in front of the cafés and amusement arcades, where we are excluded, year round.

Rather to my irritation, Gail always makes me obey these signs.

However, I couldn't help but notice that, on this chilly grey November afternoon, all of the human visitors to the 'no dogs' bit of the beach were accompanied by their pups! 

And those pups were having a fine old time, and no-one seemed to object.

Look, why else would anyone visit a beach in the Northeast of Scotland at this time of year, if not to give Rover and Fido a chance for some bracing exercise? And for the humans, the nearer to the cafés the better!

What do my readers think?

Nature Friday: Spotty Sycamore

Did you enjoy all last week's Nature Friday posts?

I did too. Thank you so much to Arty and the LLB gang for such a great idea!

Today I am going to don my Bouncing Bertie Boffin hat and tell you about spotty sycamore leaves.

We have loads of sycamore trees in Aberdeen - including one in the street right outside my house. At this time of year the ground is covered with their large leaves, often daubed with black splodges of tar spot fungus.

Sounds bad doesn't it? I mean, how would you like to be infected with a fungus and end up covered in black spots? 

Of course if you were a Dalmatian you might not notice the difference... 

I digress.

But you know what? The fungus really doesn't harm the trees, and for the rest of us it's a welcome sight.

You see tar spot fungus only grows where the air is clean and free of sulphur dioxide. In the bad old days when the UK's many coal-fired power stations were belching out sulphurous pollution you rarely saw spotty sycamore leaves. 

But now they're a common sight, thanks to clean air legislation.

A timely reminder folks, that governments (and the EU) sometimes pass good and necessary laws!