You know it’s getting very cold when you begin to value having a doggy bag full of hot dog poo on you. Always pick up your dog’s poo.

Some cold autumn photographs from the place where I walk the dog. I’m lucky that all this is only a 15 minute walk from my house in the town. A lifesaver.

Walking the home made bike run.

On wet days I hike through the pine plantation where local kids build and maintain their mountain bike slalom. They’ve been doing that for generations (in terms of the short period of mad youth).

My mates son was one of them when he was young. Now he works in youth hostels all over the world. I know where they cache their tools.

His parents still have the scary video tapes of when he strapped their video camera to his helmet. It was years before Go Pro and solid state recording. But it was after VHS tape.  The camera was relatively small for the time and used the little mini tapes.

Dog photo bombing.

I would photograph details on the ground too, like mushrooms, flowers and textures. But the dog nose always gets shoved right under the lens. “What is it? What are you doing? Is it edible? Can I dig? What’s that smell? Is there a bone?”

He moves extremely fast and thinks he’s helping his master as he tramples the subject into the dirt in his enthusiasm.

Root Plates

The root plate covered in ferns of a fallen, still living, birch tree. It’s a big tree and to follow the path you have to crouch down and duck under the bole.

I always give the trunk a heavy dunt with my shoulder before I go under because one day it may drop on someone. Unlikely though.

Coconut Scented Flowers.

Whins are an invasive species in some countries. They can be a pest in Scotland too. But they flower all year round, even in the icy snow.  And the flowers smell of coconut and on a sunny day the perfume announces them often before you see them.