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

“'TIS BETTER to travel hopefully than to arrive” is one of these unattributable sayings attributed to all sorts of people, but when you try to analyse it, it seems to be nonsense. It makes more sense to turn it around and say – “'Tis better to arrive than to travel hopelessly”.

JULIUS CAESAR is said to have remarked that Roman women had given up having babies in favour of their lap dogs. Could this be said of our family? We've had eight dogs and three children, but I've always thought it was because dogs are so much more economical than children.

THE NIPPY smell in the nostrils when I'm out walking Macbeth means one thing at this time of year – someone's burning fallen beech leaves. There's no other smell like it, so there's never any doubt. Seen in their autumn glory of browns and ochre and raw umber, it's little wonder that the beech has been a favourite tree of generations of landowners in the north east of Scotland.

THE COLD snap at the start of the week brought the red squirrels and the woodpeckers and the garden song birds all flocking to the peanut feeders. Not that they didn't come before but the availability of easy feeding was a welcome invitation.

HOW DO you go downhill when you are already at the foot of the mountain? Answer – visit Cruachan Power Station at the head of Loch Awe on the A85 from Tyndrum to Oban.