A breath of fresh air from Scotland

Welcome to "Man with two dogs" - the family website for dog owners and dog walkers.

This is my countryside diary which appears each Saturday in the Courier & Advertiser newspaper.

Archive for March, 2009

Walking with history

Saturday, March 28th, 2009
Weekly

THE SCULPTOR William Lamb left to his hometown of Montrose an incomparable legacy of vernacular statuary. Amongst his lifetime’s colossal output were also many etchings of local scenes, and some of these are scenes of Montrose Basin looking eastwards to the town. In many, the slim steeple atop the Auld Kirk is an unmistakeable focal point. (more…)

Written for Weekly |

The French Connection

Saturday, March 21st, 2009
Weekly

CHERRY BLOSSOM flowers last and cherries are the first fruit to be harvested, whereas almond blossom flowers first and the nuts are the last fruit to be gathered. I didn’t know that ten days ago, but I couldn’t have made the comparison before because we don’t grow almonds in Angus. (more…)

Written for Weekly |

Blind passion

Saturday, March 14th, 2009
Weekly

THREE WOODCOCK in the space of a hundred yards are, in my experience, quite unusual. Macbeth and I were walking beside a dense thicket of self-seeded, wild rhododendron bushes near Edzell, and the first bird slipped from the undergrowth and flitted off low in the familiar zig-zag flight. Unlike the explosive clatter of a pheasant taking flight, woodcock can be so silent and fleeting you sometimes question if you really saw one. (more…)

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Disappearing history

Saturday, March 7th, 2009
Weekly

IT WAS the moment of calm when the sea was neither ae thing nor t’ither – just fidgeting in the slack water of the dying whispers of the ebbing tide as it steadied itself for the relentless six hour flow back up the beach to high water. Macbeth and I breasted the sand dunes at the outfall of the River North Esk and gazed out over the iron grey of the North Sea. (more…)

Written for Weekly |

Music of the spheres

Sunday, March 1st, 2009
Weekly

“THE HEAVENS are telling the glory of God” – the opening words of one of the mighty choruses of Haydn’s oratorio The Creation, which tells the story of the creation of the world as described in the Book of Genesis in the Bible. I sang it as an anthem at school Sunday services in the 1950s and I recall the sense of power the music gave the words.

(more…)

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