Week 2 Arbroath

Brian with Angus dog on one of our walks

No doggy daycare this week, so we’ve been in charge of walkies. We know Angus probably wouldn’t mind the same walk every day, but we quite like seeing different things, and we’ve got the car to take him off in, so rude not to!

Brian, Andy, Jackie and Becca under the Forth rail bridge

Sunday we didn’t take him anywhere new though as we were meeting up with Andy and Becca, he is an ex Solihull mountaineering club chairman and Becca his wife who he met when he moved up here a good few years ago. We had a lovely visit, a nice lunch before a little walk by the Forth, looking at the three bridges, road, rail and under construction! Spot the locals, they were the ones in waterproofs in the sunshine who got the last laugh as we got very wet in a short sharp downpour!

The Forth rail bridge (the expression 'It's like the Forth rail bridge, the painting will never be finished' is now no longer true as a special paint has now been applied that lasts much longer, so it is now 'finished'), beyond it the road bridge and beyond that the unfinished new road bridge (spot the gaps)

'Me and my dog' Walking in Glen Clova

So we’ve been to woods and beaches and everything in between. His biggest day out, both in distance to get there and walking time was a trip up to Glen Clova. We worked out how the harness worked so he could sit on the back seat and enjoy radio 2 and the air conditioning! Not sure he was bothered about radio 2! It was a lovely walk through woods up and back either side of a river which we could mostly hear but sometimes not see. 

On the bridge at the head of Glen Clova

Trotty dog after eating his al fresco lunch

On reaching the furthest point we stopped for a sandwich, and as we were picnicking we thought Angus should to, well he’s not very good at eating his breakfast! He was most surprised but decided al fresco eating was really quite good. It also revitalised him and he trotted all the way back.

On the beach at St Cyrus bay near Montrose

The lovely St Cyrus bay from the cliff top

We’ve decided he likes woods better than beaches, which I suppose isn’t actually that much of a surprise, more to sniff in the woods, plus for a dog with that much fur although cooling down in the sea has a certain appeal taking a week to dry has less appeal! We went off piste in the woods yesterday, rebelling against Brian and his plan – who takes an OS map to the woods? Blundering up and down random paths works just as well!

Toby the bath cat (we don't know why)

Toby the sleepy cat

Not really much to say, a picture will speak a thousand words. Talking of which we’ve started the 3000 piece jigsaw, thank goodness Mum is arriving today, it’s going very slowly! Changing the bed for her yesterday involved a very excited Toby cat, he’s heard tell of the bed monster and took this as his opportunity to examine every layer of the bed as it was made to give it a good seeing to! Very funny and although it took twice as long did brighten up a boring chore!

Toby under the sheet while bedmaking

 

Helping with the sheet while Angus looks on

 

The jig saw puzzle is out on the dining room table

 

Oscar decisides Brian needs help with reading his book

 

Den in the woods! Jackie and Angus inspect the work of others

 

Jackie and Angus on the cliff top walk at Arbroath

 

Here's a few photos from the coastal Geodiversity Trail walk in Arbroath. This is called 'The Cruise'

 

The coastline here is an SSSI (Site of Special Scientific Interest) It comprises two thick layers of red sandstone laid down 410 million and 370 million years ago

 

Dickmont's Den. It's 200m deep and 100m wide. Quite interested in that cave on the left!

 

The Deil's Heid

 

Carlingheugh Bay

 

Castle Gate on Carlingheugh Beach

 

Angus wanted to go down to take a closer look at the sea stack at Deil's Heid

 

And also to pose for a lovely photo!

 

This is about the best photo I could get of the Bell Rock lighthouse, 11 miles out with my point and shoot camera

Arbroath and Dundee

Oscar the cat on the bed this morning

We’re one week through our three week stay at our lovely housesit in Arbroath and we are absolutely loving it. The house is just fabulous, Arbroath and surrounding areas brilliant and the two cats, Toby and Oscar and dog Angus are an absolute delight. Angus in particular I have absolutely fallen in love with, he is the most sweet natured dog I’ve come across and we’re loving every moment with him and the others. We couldn’t have found anywhere better. Colin and Louise, the house owners, if you are reading this, we hope you’re having as great a time in Phoenix, Arizona as we are here!

RRS Discovery, Captain Scotts vessel

Jackie has already spoken about the animals in her blog entry and since then there have been many more enjoyable experiences with them and the other wildlife nearby. The buzzards are still around in the trees and in the garden, we can hear them calling most of the day and we often see them sitting on the garden wall or in the trees looking out. Red squirrels we see running through the trees and there are so many rabbits running around in the garden and on the golf course through the garden gate along with lots of ducks on the little lochan just out alongside the golf fairway, it’s an absolute delight.

Not sure if Jackie mentioned the cinema room in the house or not, but there is one here, a whole room devoted to it with a large screen, projector and surround sound, it really does feel like we’re at the cinema! There are many DVD’s for us to watch and, so far we’ve seen two, going in there for the evening complete with a glass of wine and stopping halfway through for an ice cream (can’t go to the cinema without an ice cream!), it’s brilliant!

This photo shows the thickness and types of wood used in the construction of RRS Discovery. 66cm total thickness!

Dundee and the Tay from Dundee Law hill

The only thing we haven’t done much of is walking and that’s because of Jackie’s Achilles tendons which have been causing her a few problems for quite a while now. We’ve walked 6 or 7km on relatively flat ground and we went out for a bike ride together the other day, but each time she gets a lot of pain from her ankles.

The WWII monument on Dundee Law

Choosing less active outings we decided to drive into Dundee earlier in the week to go and take a tour round the RRS Discovery (Captain Scott’s ship that he went to the Antarctic to on his first trip) as it is permanently there in a dry dock. See: http://www.rrsdiscovery.com/index.php?pageID=129

On the way, in Dundee we passed a Podiatrist and decided to go in and book an appointment for her. She went back on Friday, was diagnosed as having Achilles tendinitis and now has lots of stretching exercises to do to try and loosen it off. She is going back on Monday week for a massage to loosen up her calf muscles and, as long as she stretches before and after walking, she can build up safely to do longer and longer walks. Good news, but perhaps she needs further consultations when we’re back in Birmingham just to make sure before we head off to South America in September.

Dundee and the Firth of Tay, looking out to the North Sea. The construction is an oil rig in for servicing. At the head of the darker peninsular of land on the left is Broughty Castle that we went to. Not visible in this photo (but we could see it through binoculars) is Bell Rock Lighthouse above Broughty Castle almost on the horizon, 11 miles out

Broughty Castle looking back towards Dundee

Anyway, back to the RRS Discovery visit, we spent over 2 hours there looking round the museum and touring the ship. It has had an eventful history. It was one of the last, three masted, wooden hulled ships to be built, in 1901 and was designed and constructed in Dundee specifically for scientific research in the Antarctic. Dundee was chosen due to its experience of building very strong whaling ships to operate in the frozen arctic waters and wood was chosen because of its capability of resisting the huge compressive forces on the hull when frozen in ice. Steel hulls are more likely to bend and distort.

The drawbridge at Broughty Castle

At the time the Antarctic was a relatively unknown continent and Sir Clements Markham, president of the Royal Geographical Society conceived the idea of scientific expedition to the area and appointed Scott to lead it.

Following that trip it had a chequered history including having its engine and boilers ripped out during the Second World War as steel was so scarce, it finally was bought and returned to its home port of Dundee where it is today.

A very interesting day and we spent so long there that we had no time left to see anything else of Dundee!

Dundee. See the road bridge over the Tay and, on the right Dundee Law hill

However, we were due to come back on Friday for Jackie’s foot appointment so we came a bit earlier to have another look round the city. This time we went up to the top of Dundee Law, which is a hill in the city centre that apparently is an old volcanic plug. The rest of the very old volcano has worn away by ice ages, just leaving a hill which offers a great view over the city.

From the top we could see the whole of the city, the river Tay, the Firth of Tay (river mouth to the sea) and the headland out to St Andrews and its famous golf course. We met a local couple at one of the lookouts, had quite a long chat with them and they admitted that they had lived there for well over twenty years and this was the first time they had been to the top! Why is it that we all see things in far off places but never the things on our doorstep?

The blue statue is an Oor Wullie. Over the summer Dundee council have located 55 of these round the city and you can download a map showing where they are and walk round to find them. We happened upon about 4 of them, this being one.

The view from the balcony of the house

Looking out to the Firth of Tay and the sea beyond, we could see a peninsular of land stretching into the Tay with a small castle on it. This is Broughty Castle, first built in 1454, but strengthened in 1846 due to fears of possible Russian and French wars. It is in a very strategic position at the entrance to the Tay for protection of Dundee, so we thought it worth a visit.

Also just in view almost on the horizon (But not visible in our photo due to the resolution) is the Bell Rock Lighthouse. It’s 11 miles out and, in the photo it’s almost on the horizon beyond and above Broughty Castle (but you can’t see it). Fortunately we had taken our binoculars and could just pick it out in the sunshine. The Bell Rock Lighthouse is the world’s oldest surviving sea washed lighthouse built between 1807 and 1810 by Robert Stevenson. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_Rock_Lighthouse 

Art? Seen on our walk today

We had two visits to Broughty Castle, one before and one after Jackie’s foot appointment, both pretty quick visits as it was just closing on the second visit. It was also packed with school kids who were celebrating having just finished school for their summer holidays, so in very high spirits! Interesting history and a good view back to Dundee and Dundee Law hill. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broughty_Castle and https://www.visitscotland.com/info/see-do/broughty-castle-museum-p245761

Oscar and Angus on our walk this evening

Other things we’ve done is a 33km bike ride I did on my own using one of Colin’s road bikes. The garage is full of bikes and he had said we could use them if we want to but bear in mind they are very expensive, some of them costing almost as much as a small family car! I didn’t take out the full carbon fibre one as I was too scared, so instead took out one of the others, probably still worth a small fortune! It was very easy to ride, but I still got back pretty tired after 33km! Maybe I’ll try the full carbon fibre one next!

The two of them enjoying each others company

Took Angus out for a 7.5km local walk today, which was thoroughly enjoyable and certainly made him sleep this afternoon while I cooked a cake (sultana cake) and then wrote this. Planning on more walks (don’t forget your stretching Jackie), possibly venturing out to Glen Clova and other Glens leading out towards the Cairngorms and the Highlands. Will Angus manage longer walks or shall we leave him at home? More on that next time!

On the golf fairway together

Anyway, the sun is still shining, Jackie’s taken Angus out for a quick game of football and an early evening walk and dinner is not far off. Better go and open the wine…..

Before posting this I have one more thing to add…I left this for Jackie to read through and I took Angus out for his walk, Oscar the cat was sitting outside in the sun and I stroked him as I went past, got to the gate out onto the golf course and Oscar decided to join us. It’s the first time I’ve taken a dog and a cat for a walk together and it was an absolute delight. They were obviously enjoying each other’s company, staying together, sniffing things together and touching noses every so often and following each other around, each taking a turn to lead. For me it was hysterical and I couldn’t stop taking photos. Proof that cats and dogs can get on and, more than that, be the best of friends. For me it was a very special moment. Here’s some of my photos…

Angus the dog by the hedge and Oscar cat in the long grass

Angus sniffing the grass alongside the fairway, Oscar cat not far behind

Following each other on their walk together

Where Angus leads Oscar follows

Now its Oscar cats turn to lead and Angus dog follows

Come on slowcoach!

Trotting back together in the afternoon sunshine

Nearly home. They left the house together and returned together!