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 2018
Feathering the nest
Saturday, March 31st, 2018
THE WIDEOPEN is a secondary road crossing the ridge of hills linking Marykirk in the Howe of the Mearns with St Cyrus on the coastal plain. The Doyenne and I had bought a bag of Inka’s favourite dog meal at the Moorie Kennels and were heading home. (more…)
Stormy days
Saturday, March 24th, 2018
“IT’S ALL that teuchat storms” was the comment from a walker of my own vintage who I meet regularly. It’s an old expression, rarely heard these days, but I knew fine what he meant. (more…)
The shifting sands of time
Saturday, March 17th, 2018
I LOOKED back to this time last year to see what I had written about and it confirmed what the Doyenne and I suspected. The weather was milder a year ago but, despite the recent cold snap, signs of spring this year seem at least a fortnight earlier. (more…)
A native in great danger
Saturday, March 10th, 2018
THE BIG Thaw struck and the landscape took on a distinctly unhealthy colour. Deep fog descended like a wet blanket and it was all dubs and gutters underfoot. The snowdrops closed their petals and hung their heads in gloom. (more…)
Tale sends shivers down spine
Saturday, March 3rd, 2018
SO OFTEN the weather has the last word. Last week I was counting the days till spring arrived and this week the Beast from the East blew in and turned things upside down. (more…)
Early signs of a busy spring
Saturday, February 24th, 2018
THE LENGTHENING days raise my spirits. I can put up with the dreich mornings knowing that spring is just biding her time to make an entrance. The snowdrops in the woods are in full bloom and the pencil heads of daffodils are showing above ground and will add new colour when the snowdrops die away. (more…)
The fallen and Fenella’s fate
Saturday, February 17th, 2018
ON MONDAY I did something I had been meaning to do, not quite for as long as I can remember, but for a long time. I drove to Stonehaven to walk to the memorial to the dead of World Wars I and II which stands atop the Black Hill overlooking the town. (more…)
Life in the dead of winter
Saturday, February 10th, 2018
ESCAPING FROM the winter weather I took Inka for a walk in the shelter of the woods beside Capo Quarry lying just off the Lang Stracht, the long, straight road running from the Upper Northwaterbridge to the foot of the Glenesk road. The woods are criss-crossed with roe deer tracks and there’s plenty of interest for dogs. (more…)
Chilly finger’d spring again
Saturday, February 3rd, 2018
THE CALENDAR says it is winter, but spring doesn’t have a calendar and even if she did – and spring is a she, poet Hilaire Belloc writes of “our Sister the Spring” – she couldn’t read it. Anyhow, she doesn’t trouble herself with such man-contrived constraints. (more…)
Lines from days gone by
Saturday, January 27th, 2018
LAST SUNDAY the Doyenne and I set off to drive to Cumbria. In different circumstances we should have looked at the weather and postponed the visit. This one couldn’t be postponed as it was for a family funeral. (more…)