A Thursday morning walk with Tara
29 November 2012
18:01
Tara is my 7 year old Labradoodle bitch,
she is as soft as wool in temperament, and very intelligent too, but most of
all she is my best friend and companion.
Since my heart attack two years ago we walk
three times a day, the exercise is good for her and good for me too although
these days she is slowing down a little and yes she has got a bit of fat on her
now.
We normally set of in the spring and summer
early in the morning. I live in a small village that is surrounded by fields.
At the end of the field is a hill that backs on to Baxter's Food group factory. To reach the top of this
hill is some steps cut into the bank and a path that joins a nature walk.
Early morning is a nice time to do this
walk, we walk out of the back of the village to our right is the brick built
large scout hut with a copse backing onto that, to our left is a path that
leads into another part of the village, ahead of us leads the Gordon Baxter
walk, as we join this walk we can see
the hill in the distance not to far but a nice fifteen walk away. On our left
are tall weeds and some wild flowers among them, on our right we have wild
raspberries which are ripe in late July early August I enjoy picking and eating
them as I walk natures treats I call them.
Its now November and I hear the sound of
geese above me, I look up and watch the skeins of geese all in there v
formations calling out to each other I sometimes think they are lost and are
arguing with each other seeking the
place they are looking for.
They are not really geese but Whooper Swans
they have flown in from the north Iceland, Sweden and Norway too. They normally
come in about October time although this year I had noticed they were here from
late September time. A warning of a hard winter I hope not.
As Tara and I walk along to our right is a
small field with horses and Shetland ponies grazing in there, at the back of
them is a huge warehouse where Baxter's ship their produce out all over the
world.
One of the Shetlands spot Tara he comes
over to the fence, then starts to gallop alongside the fence, Tara starts to
run alongside of him right to the end and back again, Tara running with him
barking joyfully they run up and down like this 3 times then they are both
knackered, this particular Shetland pony always runs when he sees Tara I
believe he knows she like to run with him.
We walk along the path, on our left we have
a stubble field, that was wheat before the harvest, all cut and gone now. On we
walk we come to a huge conifer hedge surrounding a cottage owned by the
Baxter's, out of the hedge flies Mrs Blackbird looking for insects that might be
buried under the carpet of leaves after the Autumn winds have stripped the
leaves from the trees.
As we reach the top of the path on our left
are wild honeysuckle growing some of the last flowers are there shriveled up
as the nights grow colder. We reach the T junction we have two ways to walk, to
our right we can walk along the back of a big house which houses the offices of
the Factory, or we can turn right and either follow the walk down to the old
red barn or we can turn left up the steps and into the woods up on the hill,
Breaks hill it is called. I stop Tara stops I hear an old bull calling making a
hell of a noise, I look across the fields, I cannot see anything, Tara and I
continue up the steps, the bull calling has stopped, as we reach the top of the
hill I look across the field that borders the woods and there I spot them five
hinds roan deer and then I spot the stag with full regalia, the hinds disappear
into the woods, the stag stands his ground he has seen Tara and is pawing the
ground, Tara stands up on her hind legs to get a better view I hold her by her
collar and force her down, No Missus, I call her Missus as she is the boss, no
play today he can turn nasty, it’s the rutting season and those old stags can
be very bad tempered when it comes to protecting their hinds.
The stag moves away, and makes his way into
the woods to join his hinds, we turn and go in the opposite direction, we walk
around in a circular route after 15 minutes we are back to where we saw the
deer, but they have gone now.
There is a viewing wall here with picnic
tables, from here you can see across the Moray Firth, in the summer when the
sun is in a certain position you can see white ghost like structures standing
out of the water these are part of a wind farm out in the sea.
In the near distance you can see the River
Spey making its way down to Spey Bay where it joins the sea. From up here you can see the old railway
viaduct known as Spey Bridge which used to carry the railway line until
Beeching closed the line back in the 1960s, now its used as the route 1 cycle
track.
We turn around and head back home along the
same track.
