Birthday boy

 

Why do you keep posting all that old hippy type music , OM ? There's just as good stuff being written today.


Aye, right.

On the trail of the lonesome pine

 

 

Well, not exactly lonesome – there were hunerts o’ them. Pine Central, in fact.

 

Yes, yesterday’s wee stroll in the ancient Caledonian forest at Rothiemurchus.

 

 

 

 

My diminutive amanuensis, Buspassepartout, came up trumps again, and I was able to get a decent day with a change of scenery courtesy of National Express 588. Nothing too demanding – about 6 miles with virtually no up at all. Lovely scenery, dry if chilly weather, and a pleasant chat and skinny latte from the young lad at the cafe by the bridge.

Highly satisfactory

It was good..

 

 

….to get out again into the foothills (Hillfoots, even), and hear the whaups and the laverocks, the burns and the linns.

 

 

Each bug or wee turn seems to take longer to shake off and leaves me a bit weaker than before. However, my main problem yesterday was the final demise of my camera. This was bad news. Bad news indeed and will necessitate a trip to Poundland to procure a replacement. The antiphotographs featured on this post were taken using my smartphone.

Well, it claims to be a smart phone, but I don’t believe it’s that smart, compared, for example to the wool in my socks. Anyway.

 

 

 

 

A couple for Danny

 

Tuesday..(the music)

Tuesday..

 

..being what is known in meteorological circles as a “fine day”, I set out for a stroll along the Kings Highway between Menstrie and Logie. This is the route of the old road which held up along the base of the Ochils before the carse was drained and “The Turnpike” was built.

As I wandered, lonely as a cloud, I beheld a host of golden….

 well, Doronicum actually.

 

 not the sort of thing you expect to find in the woods.

 

 The Whin was in full bloom, although you can get flowers showing for 10 months of the year.

 

 An old, amply proportioned kissing gate. In fact it’s probably more of a knee-trembler gate.

 

 Blairlogie – the kind of conservation village where the local pub probably has Snowcem on draught.

 

Now this is where the story really starts ( as Wallace Greenslade used to say).

I’ve walked past this house dozens of times and created a history in my head based on my interpretation of various current features. 5 features, in fact, and I got 5 out of 5 wrong !!

(I know – difficult to believe, isn’t it ?)

The owner was parking his car as I passed and I engaged him in conversation. (It’s just a knack I have). He turned out to be a thoroughly pleasant, informed and chatty bloke – there are a few still about but, Christ, you have to look hard for them.

We leant on the the gate in the sunshine, chewed the fat, exchanged prejudices, sucked on straws, and gently farted, as old men do. He told me where I had gone wrong.

 I had this figured for a doocot being restored. WRONG. It was actually built in the mid-19thC as a ruin – a folly, and was now being converted into holiday accommodation.

 

 At first cursory glance I had this figured as an converted horse mill, a theory I found other evidence to back up .WRONG. It was built in the 1970s as a granny flat !

 

This I had down as the mill lade with the fenced off area being the remains of the sluice gate. WRONG.WRONG.

This was the spring-fed well for the house drinking water,pumped up using a hand pump. The channel was an overflow which fed the local curling pond.

 

 All that is left of the curling pond. You can just about make out the remains of the overflow mechanism which kept the water level low to facilitate freezing.

 

And finally, the lych gate thingy which I had decided was a folly or conceit. WRONG .Actually it was moved when the extension was built and was originally the gate from the garden through to the well and was in fact The Watergate.

So, pretty comprehensive, really. Shows to go ye. eh.

 

 

Now, I’ve been suffering a bit from bloggers block. I’ve done a few wee walks, uploaded the pics and then couldn’t be arsed writing it up.

This hasn’t been helped by the fact that Livewiter no longer handles Youtube clips and Blogger editor doesn’t really handle text or pictures. So I tried this, the new 2 part post.