Meeow!

Had a nice walk in Devilla Forest yesterday near Kincardine. What a scorcher of a day again! It was like walking in a hot dusty part of America, I expected rattlesnakes in the path in front, bears hiding in the woods, the sound of a coyote, a Bald Eagle flying overhead, and a strange family house with a guy playing a banjo up a tree (If you havent seen Deliverance the last reference will mean nothing to you). The dogs were reacting to the heat differently. One didnt appear to be affected by it at all whilst the other was like an old man wearily walking on with the world on his shoulders. Refused water the whole way though. Nice forest but a bit too 'Forestry Commission' in places. Strange thing happened at one point, Myself and one of the dogs were happily wondering along a narrow track where everything seemed really quiet, no birds sang and I have to admit it was as if something was watching us. I looked round and noted that the other dog, the one that's usually the most inquisitive had stopped in his tracks about 30 yards back. I shouted on him but he wouldnt come, I tried to pick him up and he wasnt happy, I put him down and decided we would go back the way we came, and he was suddenly over the moon, took the lead, but kept looking back over his shoulder. Weird, he's never done that before. I did some research on the place when I came home. Turns out there's been sightings of a 'big cat'. Surely not?! Oh and I didn't end up the way of Burt Reynolds and his pals!

Burn baby burn.

Bought a gas BBQ yesterday (see photo on the right), but made the fatal mistake of a) Starting to build it in mid afternoon and b) Telling wife it would only take me half an hour to make. This by the way was my retort to the fact that the guy in B&Q had told my wife that he had the same BBQ and it had taken him an hour to make. Needless to say mid afternoon was a bit late to be starting to make it, and my half hour became an hour then 2 hours and finally as the sun was saying its last goodbyes and heading away behind the neighbours roof tops and the back garden became 10 degrees cooler, I was ready! Now part of the blame must go to the instruction manual which was clearly wrong, and so convinced of this was I that I showed it to my wife....who agreed! Anyway standing beside my new mansize BBQ, tongs in hand I shouted bring on the meat! Before you could say salmonella I had steak, sausages and burgers sizzling away, and a family shivering away at the garden table. We made it through to the end though. Burgers were slightly burnt on the outside and a wee bit too pink on the inside but no one died...yet. Ahh, the Scottish summer....bring it on!

Raven Mad!

Went for a nice walk today on my own armed with just my camera. Wasnt sure what I was going to photograph, usually a bad sign as I prefer to plan, but just stopped the car and began walking. An hour later I arrived at a quarry. Now where there's a quarry there's often a peregrine so I scanned the quarry walls for almost an hour until I saw the tell tale white breast of a bird high up on the opposite quarry face. I walked round to get a better vantage point making sure to stay well away from what I suspected was a peregrine. I found a nice elevated grass area and peeped through a gorse bush, placed my camera to my eye and scanned the quarry again. Yes, definitely a peregrine. Another 10 minutes of looking revealed another peregrine, and 2 possible nests! All was fairly quiet until.....A raven flies in to one of the nests, the 2 peregrines take off and squawking angrily, dive bomb the raven in the nest for a good 2 minutes before the raven leaves. It was like the Battle of Britain, except nobody got hurt...this time. When I got home I downloaded my photos and cropped them revealing that the other nest had a 2 or 3 new born peregrines in it. What an afternoon! The photo is very poor quality as I've cropped it to within an inch of its life, but you get the picture! The Raven's the black shape and just to the right above and below are two angry peregrines.

If you go down to the woods today....

Day off today so took the dogs to the woods for a long walk on the yellow route. Sun, rain, hot and cold all in the space of two hours. Only in Scotland! Took some nice photos and saw some wildlife. I often find that if you just stay still for 5 minutes all the birds that had left when they heard you the first time, come back, and true enough, a treecreeper flew onto the tree in front of me and crept up the tree. Got a few funny looks from the two ladies walking their Spaniels. They gave me a guarded hello but really they were thinking "Please do not attack me you weirdo that we have watched standing still for the last 5 minutes or I'll set my spaniels on you and then spray mace in your face" I said hi back. Finally found my first 2 geocaches. They will also be my last 2. The first was in the roots of a tree. A small plastic container which I opened to find a bottle opener, a Kinder surprise toy, some wet paper, some dry paper in a plastic cover, a pencil, 2 dead spiders and one very much alive spider. To say I was underwhelmed was an understatement. I hurriedly wrote something on the paper and returned it to its hole. Half an hour later I found my second geocache, in tree roots again. Original.. Again a plastic container but this time a lot bigger and filled with what seemed like unwanted MacDonalds Happy Meal toys, and the obligatory spider. This time I didnt even bother opening it. I resisted the perverse urge to throw the thing as far as I could down a steep slope and returned it to its original place. Returning from behind the tree I was met by the spaniels and their owners who must have done the shorter green route. This time I swear they looked in fear for their lives. I made my excuses and left...

They think it's all over...

Okay, thinking ahead I've come up with some predictions for the future (as most predictions are!) I thought it would be fun to mention them here and then look back at them at the end of the year to see if I am either some sort of modern day Nostradamus or....not. - Despite being the darling of the British Press, Jessica Enis to end up in a nightmare 4th position at the Olympics. Let down by falling at the hurdles. - England to do well at the Euro Championships reaching the final and losing out on a penalty shoot out. - Slaters menswear to call in the receivers (No idea where that one came from) - Emeli Sande to top the summer charts with a song she recently wrote called 'Wonder' - LA to be hit by a serious earthquake... All cheery stuff. I hope none of them happen, especially England getting to a final, that would be unbearable!