the dog rambler e-diary 03 january 2012
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Walk A windswept railway walk Length 6 miles
Dogs on walk Gina, Lucas, Maggie, Solo, Tim
Woke up to very high winds this morning. Indeed woken during the night by the windows
rattling and bins being blown along the street. As I got up it whistled around the skylight
in the bathroom and I was sure the house lights were gently flickering. The lights
downstairs in the kitchen too appeared to flicker. Maybe it was just my eyes and me still
waking up. But it was confirmed by my partner who was wrapping up to take our two
dogs out for their morning stroll. Later than normal as he is still on holiday. Perhaps given
the weather I should be! The same thoughts had flickered through my mind last week
when we were confronted by the wind hitting hard and some lashing rain. Nothing
compared to today’s wind though.
I reached Maggie without any trouble. Just a bit of slaloming through Portobello where the
bins skidded across the road. A sign of things to come was the sight of a broken chimney
pot smashed on the ground from one of the houses next door to Maggie. On the journey to
Tim’s up and over the hill of Craigmillar Castle we saw tree branches were scattered all
over the road like a forest floor. It was as though the forested land of fairies was breaking
through the barriers to the land of people blurring the edges of our roads and their
woodland, intertwined. Nature and the constructions of man tied in a battle to win the
The Dog Rambler
E-diary
Tuesday
03 January 2012
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land.
But it was from Tim’s to reach Gina and Solo that the worst was to come. Too late on the
radio I heard that a tree was down and across the road near Dobbies Garden Centre. Sureenough ahead of us a long queue was beginning to form. I turned and detoured back to the
A7 and toward Sheriffhall Roundabout. Before reaching it another tree was half across the
road. People were beginning to clear it and directing the traffic to squeeze around the one
third of road still passable. On we went only to be scuppered again on the road to Eskbank.
This time a police car had closed the road and another diversion through Dalkeith was
required. At last we reached Gina and Solo neither looking to too keen to head out in this.
Once out the door and in the car they perked up.
A fallen chimney stack above the Ship Inn had closed part of Dalkeith’s town centre road
but we got passed and made it to Lucas with no further trouble. Where to in these
dreadful conditions? We headed for the railway from near Carberry to Ormiston. Some
shelter from the rolling fields, rising away either side of the old railway. Now a walkway.
Not too many tall trees either to land on us.
Plenty of branches and twigs along the track. Great for Gina, Maggie and Tim to play
with. Lucas not so sociable was hard to shift from clinging to my leg. Partly the wind and
certainly partly the noise of it as it tangled with the bushes and the few trees along the
way. More so when it whipped into the high power lines whinging like an Arctic blast and
then screeching through the pylons themselves like the heavy long scream from the
breaking wheels of a train.
Solo in big brother mode kept a close eye on Gina. But the wind was not bothering her.
She had play to get on with, be it chasing Tim or wrestling Maggie for a stick. The wind
behind us quickly pushed us along the track. Clouds racing across the sky a mirror of Gina
with her coat fluffing up alongside Solo’s.
Few people out today. We only passed three people, heads down pushing themselves into
the wind. Their hello snatched from their mouth and thrown backwards by the wind. Myvoice chasing off after theirs barely a chance for their ears to catch it. A good excuse for
Tim and Maggie to go rolling off to meet the other dogs when they should have been
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walking to heel. What, you called my name? Well I’m sorry I did not hear it in this wind.
Yet another fallen tree. This time near the road bridge into Ormiston. Across our walkway
and not the road. It was near our turning point so did not disrupt us. Now it was headdown for us into the wind and the long haul back to the rocking car. Gently rocking the
dogs off to sleep as I got us ready to once more take on the roads to deliver them home.
Nick
Photo slideshow from the walk
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