Not such a great idea this time...

You might recall my post at the start of this month, in which I related how, on an outing to Castle Fraser, our party of intrepid hikers ignored a 'trail closed' sign and was rewarded with a delightful and not at all difficult walk to a tranquil beauty spot. 

Well now it's time to come clean (literally and metaphorically). 

What I learned last Friday in Foggieton Woods was that ignoring signs is not always such a great idea.

I'll let the pictures do the talking...

Nobby and Doddie

Meet my new friend, six month old border terrier Doddie. He's a fine wee fellow, don't you think? 

And guess what? We have something in common (in addition to being adorable terriers, of course). 

Doddie and I are both proud to be named after men who, in their different ways, were successful both on the sporting field and as human beings. 

Admittedly, only older folk with long memories will recall my namesake, footballer Nobby Stiles, famous as a member of England's 1966 World Cup winning team and known for his 'terrier-like' take no prisoners approach to the game. Near-sighted, short in stature, with premature hair loss and false teeth, Nobby Stiles was a reminder that sporting heroes can come in all shapes and sizes. Off the field he was by all accounts a modest and likeable man, loved by his family and friends. He died of dementia in 2020. 

Doddie Weir was a much honoured international rugby player who appeared for Scotland throughout the 1990s. He was diagnosed with motor neurone disease in 2016 and in the following six years up to his death in 2022, aged 52, he had raised many millions of pounds for MND research. His colourful personality and his bravery in the face of his condition gained him a new generation of fans all over the world and raised the profile of this cruel disease. 

Gail says that my new friend and I have much to live up to.

Are magnolias "old hat"?

When we returned to Aberdeen earlier this week, Gail was thrilled to see magnolia bushes out in bloom, one in a garden opposite our house, and the other near the entrance to Duthie Park. She took some photos of them on our early morning walk.

But when I suggested this would be an excellent subject for the LLB Gang's Nature Friday, Gail rather pooh-pooh-ed the idea. 

"Nobby, I suspect most of your readers live in places where the magnolia flowers appeared weeks, if not months, ago. Although we might find it exciting that these gorgeous white and off-white blooms have finally put in an appearance in our neighbourhood, I fear others will regard the news as rather 'old hat'."

But I disagreed, reminding Gail that we live at 57 degrees North - that's further North than Moscow and Copenhagen, and almost as northerly as Juneau, Alaska - and just 'cos our spring flowers come later than in many parts of the world, it doesn't make them any the less special.  Quite the opposite in fact. 

So I'm posting the pictures anyway.

Do you have magnolias where you live? 

On top of the world

What a relief! After being 'confined to barracks' all Sunday while Storm Kathleen continued to rage, the winds finally abated somewhat on Sunday night.

Even better, our nice Torridon neighbours invited Gail and me to join them on a hillwalking expedition the next day.

Here I am on the Beinn Alligin ridge. You just can't beat that 'top of the world' feeling.

Oh and yes, it was still a wee bit breezy on the summit. 

In fact, the humans deemed it too 'breezy' to continue along the ridge and do the full circuit, so we stopped at the first peak, Tom na Gruagaich, and went down again.

It's a steep ascent/descent and I did notice Gail walking a bit funny the following morning. But don't worry, I was fine! 

Wild weather weekend in Torridon

If you think I am looking a bit moody in this picture taken in our cottage garden this weekend, then all I can say is the weather was a whole lot moodier...

I don't think I've told you yet that Gail finally got around to replacing the phone with the faulty camera, and she can now once again take photos that are reliably more in focus, and so does not have to discard twenty pictures for every one that meets the (not very exacting) quality standard for this blog.

So anyway, being a broad-minded sort of a chap, and recognising that Gail is thrilled to be able to produce non-blurry images of our lovely NW Scotland landscape once again, I've even decided to let her slip in a couple of photos taken on outings over the past few days which don't feature me. 

 

Finally, shall I let you into a little secret? Gail couldn't work out why I was being so bold and venturing into the stormy waters of Loch Torridon, as I am usually a bit wary when waves are crashing against the shore. Well it seems she didn't realise until after she stopped filming the wee video below that I'd detected the remains of a fairly recently deceased sheep caught up in the seaweed and was I keen to investigate further...