We were visiting friends in Aberdeenshire at the weekend and went out for a nice walk on saturday afternoon in the countryside.
Our friends live out in the countryside. They dont keep animals themselves, but their neighbours do. These lovely wee Shetland Ponies came up to the fence to say hello to us across the road from their house - they were very friendly, and were looking for some attention and treats I think !
In the same field were a number of cows - I think this one was meant to be white, but needs a bath ! It was quite foggy (Scotch mist !), hence why all the pics look quite hazy - it was foggy the whole weekend.
The field on the other side of the road contained sheep. These ones hadnt lambed yet, by the looks of things.
As we walked up the road and turned the corner, we came to their next neighbours land, and he had chickens running wild in the line of trees on the edge of his property.
And in the trees high above the chickens, we could hear the crows caw-cawing. There were quite a few of them nesting in the canopy. You can make out the nests quite easily. So the walk started of with quite a lot of animal activity which was nice !
We walked on down the road and then diverted onto a forest track. It was quite a pleasant trail through a pine forest. Pine trees are grown all over Scotland, with many pine forests being deliberately grown for harvesting to go to pulp mills, saw mills, etc. Its very common here.
This area got absolutely battered during Storm Arwen, which was last year from memory. And there was still a lot of left over damage from that, with trees upended, etc in the forest. Above you can see the whole base and root system of a fallen tree.
The tree above had fallen over the path, and had been cut to let people pass. I loved seeing the clear rings in the cut. I didnt count them all but there are around 20 rings out to the deeper orangey part - so this tree must have been around 30 to 40 years old.
We were quite far out in the country and there was a lot of lichen growing on the trunks of the trees. I'm always told that its a sign of good air quality. I can believe that as we were quite far from any towns where we were, and about 30 miles away from Aberdeen, the only city close to the area.
You can see the fog again in the pic above, particularly towards the end of the row of trees. Again a lot of local cutting has been done here - I guess as a result of the storm to clear the damage.
We passed this intriguing pile of rock, which was in a field at the side of the forest. Aberdeenshire is known for its granite, with Aberdeen nicknamed the granite city, as thats what all the buildings are built with. I think this looks like the typical grey granite. But its odd, because it wasnt quarried here - it was clearly dumped here at some point and then never used - looked pretty cool to me though, especially nestled amongst the lovely orange brackens, etc.
We emerged out the other side of the forest onto the golf course - which was our destination. Not to play golf, but heading for the club house to have a few pints !
15 minutes later we were beside the club house, which was next to the river, where this field had been recently prepared for planting. We popped into the club house- had a few pints and then took the same route back. We all enjoyed the walk, and the pints - I should have taken a picture of the club house - not sure why I didnt !
Anyway, we enjoyed the country air, a walk in different surroundings and seeing the animals.
That wraps up my wednesday walk for this week. All the best from Scotland !