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 April, 2010

Orange Ark

Saturday, April 24th, 2010
Weekly

YOU NEVER know who you are going to meet round the next corner.  Thus it was on Wednesday when the dogs and I were out again walking along the side of the River North Esk.  What looked like an orange boat bobbing about in the shallows turned out to be three floats, like Oropesa floats, linked together to form a platform.

In a wooden shed on the bank, crouched over a computer, I met Gary Killon and Ian Forbes who work for SEPA – the Scottish Environment Protection Agency which has responsibility for protecting and improving Scotland’s environment and creating a sustainable legacy for future generations, an ideal close to my heart.

The computer was linked to an Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler which is the grown up name for their wee orange boat, and it is a very sophisticated piece of kit.  Using sonar, it measures the flow and quantity of water coming down the river to provide accurate flood forecasting.

The boat was secured to an overhead wire which spanned the river and was winched back and forth enabling Gary and Ian to measure the relationship between the height and flow of water at various points.  This is the last of three recording stations on the river which collect information on rainfall and floodwater threat.

SEPA is introducing an improved proactive flood warning system to their existing Flood Warning Direct provision, which will come into operation in the autumn.  This will enable the agency to give a minimum of three hours notice of flooding via text or phone message to vulnerable houses and businesses which sign up to the new system, so that they can take preventive action.

I chased the dogs out of the hut before Inka put his foot through the computer and we carried on up the river.  Inka suddenly froze in classic pointer pose, his nose working overtime.  As I thought, it was a nest but an unwelcome visitor had been there before us.

Just a scrape in the ground, lined with grass and leaves, there were broken egg shells scattered around and a single partridge egg sitting forlornly in the middle.  Possibly the work of a crow for, although it seemed well concealed amongst thin saplings, the nest was too close to the field edge to escape sharp-eyed predators.  That’s nature, but it’s probably still early enough for the birds to mate again and produce a second clutch.

I’ve been told that the Keithock Burn which rises somewhere about Trinity, outside Brechin, and flows into the Cruick Water (which in turn flows into the West Water, which in due course joins the River North Esk) is the only river in Angus to flow north.  There are an awful lot of water courses in Angus – surely there can’t be just one that flows north.  What can readers tell me?

Written for Weekly |

Small and deadly!

Saturday, April 17th, 2010
Weekly

TWO DOGS ought to be enough for any family, but for this past week we’ve been a three dog family with a visit from Rosie, our daughter Cait and her family’s high octane Jack Russell terrier.  She saw Cait and grandson James depart with scarcely a backward glance and settled down to organise her new surroundings to her satisfaction

(more…)

Written for Weekly |

Spring loaded

Saturday, April 10th, 2010
Weekly

NATURE HEAVED a sigh of relief – at least round here, on Wednesday, she did.  After the snow and the hard weather everything still looks brown and scruffy and we need some green shoots of spring to lift our spirits. (more…)

Written for Weekly |

Hunger is the best sauce in the world – Miguel Cervantes

Saturday, April 3rd, 2010
Weekly

SMALL DOGS sometimes make a bigger impact than their size suggests. (more…)

Written for Weekly |