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 Dundee Courier newspaper.
Archive for October, 2011
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…)