Tales of Home [2]

DI Eldo, solving the case!

appreciate it ^^ i was so worried .. 

One of my friends is away in Barcelona with his missus so I have their dog for a few days.
She is an australian shepherd (apparently thats a name but it could be a job description too as they are amazing at herding) and her name is Kia (pronounced Ki-ah not Ke-ah like the car).

So I took her up the forest roads for a walk.

Ready to go-



Setting off (in search of a stick as it turned out- she loves a stick)-



A stick!  And a happy dog.



Up past the comm mast-



Passed which is a nice spot for a seat, a buckie and a rollie-




When I read the hobbit the Desolation of Smaug look a bit like this in my head, only more burnt. This is what a hillside of storm damaged trees looks like once the forestry commision have been in to clear it-








The view is a bit nicer the other way-



Foxglove- theres loads of it at this time of year. Looks nice but I wouldnt recommend picking them unless you fancy death by poisoning-



I live very roughly over thereish. And yes I have to walk all the way back there too.  



Kia, trying to fight water and losing-



Like the Doctor I tend to consider signs like this as advice rather than instruction-



The road goes ever on and on (although not actually in this case-it goes for about another 2-3 miles)-



I really dislike the forestry tress covering our hillsides. Tress dont naturally growin rows so close together, and forest usually have more than one type of tree in them.
Nothing really lives in them- under the canopy its too dark for more than moss to get going, and there is a blanket of fallen pine needles smothering everything thats several feet thick.
This is more or less how I see Mirkwood.
Excuse the slight blurring in some of them, it was hard to see what I was doing- and this on a day of bright sun and blue skies (and the camera made it brighter than it is on the eye in real life)
Mirkwood indeed.







It should look like this, which is natural forest-



And that was time to turn around and head back (I was running low on buckie)-



People often say power lines are a blight on the countryside, but Ive always rather liked them, snaking across the land-





You get some nice views on the way back-





Kia has a knack for finding pools of water to leap into, then of shaking herself dry next to me  



My attempts to get her to give up her stick before we left the hillside were not well received-



And she took it all the way home too-

That's an adorable dog! And some gorgeous natural scenery too. The power lines remind me of an area not far from where I live. It's a park but it's got some giant lines going across it.

Lovely pics ! actually looks a nice, relaxing afternoon ! I agree about Mirkwood etc. & that dog !........awh ! shes a pip !

That's an adorable dog! - Eldo

Yeah she sure is. Needs a lot of walking though, with being a working dog originally.

looks a nice, relaxing afternoon- Azriel

It was. The weather was glorious. The scenery stunning.  

Well obviously apart from the heat  the amount I sweated   the realisation I couldnt quite scamper up and down rough slopes like I once could without hurting myself  the dog soaking me, twice  the dog wanting its stick thrown all the time  and the fact my limbs have now stiffened to the point where I look like Boris Karloff's Frankenstein when I walk  

And people wonder how I can be crabbit in such scenery.  
How can I not be!

could have been worse  

It can always be (and usually gets) worse Azriel.
That's just another thing to be crabbit about.  

cute dog, almost as cute as mine ^^ although i don't understand  how the name is pronounced.

Ki- like kigh- to rhyme with high. and ah to rhymne with lah.

kigh? lah? 

OOOH! i understand now lol

Kaja... or Kaia. ..

Apart from the 'l' bit.

i didn't say there was an l there, Ance.

I know you didnt... petty did!

No I didnt (I dont think  ) didnt I say the last syllable rhymed with lah?

what are u on about??

Sorry.... I clearly had some selective reading there.

I'll go stand in the corner now..........

clear, concise reasoning, unique in depth conversation,.........as always in Forumshire  

Another day of sunshine- another trip out- Toward this time.

Im getting better at taking snaps out of moving cars I think!

This is the Waverely setting on her way from the pier- as she has been doing since Victorian times. The Worlds Last Ocean Going Paddle Steamer still in service - although I dont fancy crossing an ocean in it myself much.





Um this pic, not so good, but Ive put it in because it shows the mountains of Arran in the distance, sitting out beyond the Isle of Bute.
Normally you cant see them from this far away due to, well normal Scottish weather being in the way.
Rothesay- where my previous pics were taken- is on Bute. This pic gives an idea of scale if you remember the shots I took when I was higher up above Rothesay- mere hills compared to Arran.



Thats Bute over there.



The rocks here are slate- a good proportion of houses in this area have this as their roofing.





Some seaweed, today. They are trying to make bio fuels out of this stuff- actually they can already, the problem is growing and harvesting the stuff- but the latest developments are looking good- huge mats you grow it on, then to harvest you just hoist up the mats.



Two jetties (slipways)-





Some sparkiling water and some yachts-





You get a lot of wild flowers here too-





Toward Castle, well the new one (new as in its only 200 odd hundred years old)













Some trees-



And heading home-



for a game of fetch with Kia-

i am just gonna say it.. scotland looks nothing like scotland.



btw, what does ur cats think of the dog?

gorgeous photos. love the castle and the sweet doggie  

scotland looks nothing like scotland.- Norc

I admit I was drunk, but I swear I never left the country!  

"what does ur cats think of the dog?"

The youngest Sisko, couldnt give a shit, he just curls up and sleeps- Kia just wants to say hello and sniff his bum. Naturally Sisko is not to keen on this, and when this happens he moves either up higher and sleeps there instead, or in an emergency he hisses, which always makes Kia jump backwards, in which time Sisko is gone.

Dax the middle cat is, an odd cat, with a complex personality. When she was still very young she worked out how door handles operated by watching me, so she can open doors herself, and then she taught it to her mother
Here she is sussing out the new doors just after I moved into my current barrel.



But she is wary of people and dogs. She will stay in another room and half sleep, but she keeps ears cocked and eyes half open.
But she will happily follow me into the back garden where the neighbours dogs are because she knows them and how they react,

Keira, the oldest cat is, well, she is a crabbit cat, bless her angry soul, especially around dogs. She had a bad start in life, left to fend for herself for a week with a dog in an empty flat. And dogs in her house....
This is what happened the first time a young Kia visited.

Keira took one look at her and ran two foot vertically up a a wall, in order to use the wall as a spring board for her powerful back legs, to launch herself, claws out and hissing at Kia's face.
It took us ten minutes of reassuring to get Kia back out from behind the couch.

Keira goes out when Kia comes to stay, and if she is in she sleeps on my bed, and if Kia so much as sticks her nose in there Keira just needs to look at Kia and she backs straight out again-once was enough.

Thanks Figgs.

I really enjoy these glimpses into life in Scotland ! & I agree with Norc, its not how I imagined Scotland. The natural slate was interesting, to see it as it is "in the wild"   Seeing it on roofs I dont think how it came about 1st. Your cat is lovely ! really pretty. I know what you mean about how they can rule the roost just by giving a "look" !!

Poor dog

Well she learnt a valuable lesson- dont try to sniff a crabbits bum hole!
And they are fine now, they have a mutual understanding, Kiera wont go where the dog can see her, and Kia wont go where to the cat can see her. Works perfectly.