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Weekly Archive
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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 the 'Weekly' Category
Shut that door
Saturday, November 26th, 2011
SMOKE RISING vertically from the chimney pots, not so much as a whisper of breeze to twitch the topmost branches of the tallest trees or shiver the fragile grasses in the hedgerows, and white duvets of mist hanging in the field bottoms. I wish I was talking about a fairytale morning with a frosty nip in the air and a warming sun burning off the mist. (more…)
Horse power vs donkey power
Saturday, November 19th, 2011
MY TAUTOLOGY blunder – the Vale of Strathmore – may have run its course. I got a call from a retired farmer at the head of Glenesk who told me that he grew up calling it the Howe of Strathmore, much as we refer to the Howe of the Mearns. (more…)
Militarily speaking
Saturday, November 12th, 2011
THE BLACK Isle is one of those off-the-main-track parts of Scotland that I reproach people for racing past in their haste to get somewhere else. The name reflects the rich, fertile land of the peninsula whose shores are washed by the waters of the Cromarty Firth on the north and the Moray Firth to the south. (more…)
No need to repeat myself
Saturday, November 5th, 2011
OH DEAR, I’ve been getting stick for writing about the Vale of Strathmore (October 22nd). Reproached for falling into the trap of tautology, the unnecessary repetition of the same thing using different words – strath and vale or valley being synonymous. Worse still, I’m guilty of allowing unwelcome Anglicisation to debase guid Scots words – clearly pretty slack behaviour. (more…)
Sea Harvest
Saturday, October 29th, 2011
“THE RAIN it raineth every day”, as Will Shakespeare’s clown sings in Twelfth Night. (more…)
Hole in the wall
Saturday, October 22nd, 2011
WHEN SOMETHING new turns up that I think I should have known about I sometimes wonder what I’ve done with my life. (more…)
Sounds natural
Saturday, October 15th, 2011
COUNTRYSIDE SOUNDS are often as big a giveaway of what’s going on round about you as actually seeing. There are the obvious examples of birdsong and identifying the singer, or the sound of livestock warning me to keep Inka in about. A fox’s sharp bark when we’re out last thing at night or a roe buck’s rasping cough are less familiar but tell me what’s on the move. (more…)
Shift in emphasis
Saturday, October 8th, 2011
TALKING TO an experienced countryman, he reckoned we’ve lost a fortnight of the autumn weather – winter has come early. The thought was reinforced by son Robert who e-mailed a photo taken on Thursday morning outside his office at Ardverikie of the snow-covered peak of Carn Dubh. I’ve been checking out the winter woollies and the long johns to see what damage the family moth has inflicted since I tidied them away into the bottom drawer last spring. (more…)
Cows and fishers
Saturday, October 1st, 2011
‘Katie Beardie had a coo / A’ black about the moo / Wasna yon a denty coo? / Dance, Katie Beardie.’
WHO WAS Katie Beardie? – the question was asked by a member of Montrose Probus Club at the end of a talk I had just given. There was a familiarity about the quotation which took me back to primary school days but I’d no idea why the lady is celebrated in a playground jingle. (more…)
It’s all in the name
Saturday, September 24th, 2011
BUMBLEBEE SQUARE sounds as though it’s been part of Comrie’s streetmap for generations. The reality is that it’s a community garden and focal point for the village created only a year ago from an empty building site. (more…)