No matter how lovely a place is, if you walk in it every day it tends to get a wee bit boring, so yesterday we decided to walk through the Balbirnie Woodland for The Guardian, rather than skirting it as we usually do. I decided to take some photos. There’s a burn/stream in the photo below but it has been so dry recently and it’s so low, it’s difficult to spot.

If you look between the rhododendrons below you should be able to see a cute wee bridge.

It was a lovely and unusually calm day, I’m not so keen to walk through so many trees when it’s windy as there are always branches being blown down, or even whole trees!

I spotted some people riding horses in the distance and managed to snap them, they were comfortably far away. I’m not so happy when they are just right on your toes and you have to turn aside to let them past. They can be very nervous.

It’s all quite a contrast to the shaved turf of the golf course which we passed on the way into town. It’s a pity that these places are so artificial and steeped in chemicals to ‘improve’ the grass, but there are some great trees on the course, so it’s not all bad.

I hope you enjoyed our walk on the wilder side of Balbirnie estate. It was a bit longer than usual, but a nice change.