Short Walks With My Brother

With the lifting of the Covid restrictions, I made a dash up to see my parents in Aberdeenshire.
My Brother Daran also visited while I was up there.
Daran and I are not ‘close’ having lived very different lives but, since lockdown we have reconnected and we are enjoying shared hobbies.

The weather in mid June was glorious and we made a series of short walks in and around Old Deer and Maud. Firstly we walked along the old railway tracks. Its flat and level walking with the potential for being a bit dull not having much in the way of veiws but the flowers and birds were amazing. We discovered our father has taught us well, both of us being able to identify bird song pretty well and enjoying the variety.
The landscape included lush meadow, marshy areas, fields and tree plantations.
We walked from Maud to Methlick following one of the Slow Ways ( https://beta.slowways.org/). I love this idea of off road(or in this case quiet roads) connecting towns and villages.

I discovered I speak “cow” ( dont say anything!) This meant Daran and I were followed by bullocks wherever the tracks ran alongside their fields.
My father had told us that the Yellow Hammer (a field bird) that is so common here seemed to have lost part of its song, so we listened for it. Sure enough the call ‘a little bit of bead and no cheese’ was missing the ‘cheese’ until we got to Auchnagatt where the song was complete again. Perhps in Maud they dont like ‘Cheese’ or I like to think its a local accent to the Yellow Hammers in Maud.

At Auchnagatt we had to walk along the quiet roads and started up some gentle hills getting some amazing veiws across Bennachie before descending into the lovely village of Methlick, with the Ythan river running through it.