The Back of Bennachie

Most days (weather dependent!) on my way to work I see Bennachie in the distance.

I've been meaning to visit Bennachie ever since moving to Aberdeenshire. It's a place I've heard of for years ... not least from the words of the Old Blind Dogs song "Gin I were whaur the Gadie rins". I finally made it there a couple of weeks ago. As I'd had a long day out already I didn't do a long walk there, maybe sometime soon I'll make it back and go to the top of Mither Tap.

I parked at the "Back of Bennachie" car park. The Forestry Commission have 4 car parks on Bennachie and a visitor centre too. There's plenty of forest walks of varying lengths, all well signposted.

I followed the 'Wild Wood' trail, where there are a few sculptures en route.

"The stretching of the trunk is the lengthening of the timber."

Up ahead I spotted what looked like one of nature's best sculptures ...

... but when I got to it I found it had been added to.

The wording on this one says "The loss of a great heart is the gain of a small invasion" and it's accompanied by carvings of some of the 'small invasion' of creatures which inhabit the dead wood (and live wood too) in the forest - such as woodlice.

There were lots of wildflowers too - and I realised that I'm going to have to start looking them up as all the common ones in Orkney whose names I knew aren't the same wildflowers found here.

There was another one, with a star like white flower too. Unfortunately I didn't manage to get a good photo of it (and then the camera battery ran out) but handily the next week Ian Johnston blogged about it, so I now know it's chickweed wintergreen, a member of the primrose family.

I thought the Forestry Commission had everything well planned and organised to cope with large numbers of visitors without doing much damage to the evironment through footpath erosion, etc. The only thing that disappointed - and really surprised - me was their attitude to dog sh*t. Instead of asking people to bag it up and TAKE IT AWAY they ask you to "flick" it off the path. What on earth is that all about????? That's surely not encouraging responsible access to the countryside?

So beware if you're out walking in Aberdeenshire. There's a lot of dog dirt about pretty much all over the place as far as I can see - so you always need to watch where you're putting your feet anyway - but whatever you do don't step off the paths in the forests as the Forestry Commission are *encouraging* people to *leave* dog dirt there polluting the place!!!! Very strange!

Aberdour Bay

I had about an hour to spare in the afternoon, so decided to visit the beach. I went to Aberdour Bay, which turned out to be a very good choice as it was a lovely bay with some great arches to explore.

This looks like it would be a fun section of coastline to explore by kayak.

The only drawback was (as I found in pretty much the *whole* of Aberdeenshire) the number of irresponsible dog owners.....  Between out of control dogs and dog dirt seemingly everywhere I went (footpaths, beaches, sand dunes, grassy areas....) I was seriously unimpressed at the number of irresponsible dog owners everywhere. The exception was at Rattray Head where the owners of the hostel have very well trained and looked after dogs, and the people I saw walking their dogs on the beach there who had them well under control as soon as they saw someone else coming along. Unfortunately there was still dog dirt on the beach and in the sand dunes though.... come on, Aberdeenshire, clean up! It really spoils some beautiful areas of coastline.

Packaging insanity

I recently ordered 2 (identical apart from colour) items from a well known company. They arrived separately. One was quite sensibly packaged in a small padded envelope which was ample protection, even from the sometimes rough treatment of the Royal Mail. The second arrived in..... well, judge for yourself......

Just how much packaging did they waste there???!!!

Insanity or what?



A Victory for Common Sense

For the last couple of months there's been a threat to the Orkney Brewery's Skull Splitter Ale. The industry 'watchdog' the Portman Group felt that it should be withdrawn from sale because it's name "implied violence" and could tempt people to turn violent!! They also complained that the label depicted an "aggressive" looking Viking!!

The ale is, in fact, named after Thorfinn Einarsson, the seventh Viking Earl of Orkney, who was nicknamed Thorfinn Skull-splitter. It has been on sale for over 20 years - without, as far as I am aware, the Viking on the label managing to incite violence.

Luckily common sense has prevailed, and today the Portman Group announced that Skull Splitter can stay on sale. Do they really have nothing better to do with their time than complain about pictures of Vikings on beer bottles - which have been sold for over 20 years!!??

A seat with a view

Spotted near the Esplanade in Ayr - wonder which clever Council department decided this was a good place for a seat? And it's not only one - there's a row of them!