Catching up

I'm quite behind with posts as things have been pretty busy here. It's going to get even busier with a family gathering coming up, more of which later.

Our run of blue skies came to an end with heavy showers today, but the following photos were taken when it seemed that summer was upon us. My lighthouse photo of last week featured a mass of gorse bushes and, for those that aren't familiar with it, here are a couple of closer views.


Although it is bright, colourful, long-flowering and smells delicious (rather like coconut), it is very invasive, takes over large areas and can be difficult to keep under control. Many of our favourite pathways along the coastline have disappeared under the gorse and there is no way you can push through it because it defends itself with some very nasty spikes! You can see them in the close up below.

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A new cycle path has been built beside us, it's not very long at the moment as it is being done in stages but it can be joined up with a country route to make a nice circular ride. I took Jana out with the bike, planning it so that the strong wind was behind us on the more exposed section! She was off lead for half of the time and trotting next to the bike for the rest. Good exercise for her and me.

The nice new cycle path

I've always liked this tunnel of trees


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Last Sunday Jenny and I, plus Jana, Brint and Keira, tackled Bennachie, a well known Aberdeenshire hill. It's very distinctive with its four peaks, the most interesting being Mither Tap, a knobbly granite point which was once part of an Iron Age fort. It can be seen on the far left of the photo below.

Bennachie (photo taken from Wikipedia)

Although not the highest of hills, it was steep enough in places to get me huffing and puffing and wondering what on earth I was doing there! The view from the top was well worth all the effort though. It is actually a broad, heather covered ridge with the peaks well spread out. Mither Tap is the one that seems to be the most popular with walkers but Oxen Craig is the actual summit and we wanted to take them both in.

Mither Tap appears out of the trees on the lower slopes

Jenny poses (reluctantly) with the dogs on Mither Tap

We stopped for lunch at the top and the dogs weren't left out. Jana and Keira wait for their biscuits

PLEASE can I have it?

Looking out over green Aberdeenshire

There was a championship show going on in Edinburgh and we were able to keep up to date with how friends were getting on via the wonders of modern technology! Jenny's daughter Ria was relaying results from the computer at home to Jenny's mobile phone.

Jenny gets the latest news

Looking across to the summit peak, Oxen Craig (L)

Coming down from Mither Tap

Interesting pancake-like rocks on the last climb

Oxen Craig, the very top, looking back at Mither Tap

The view north