Pond newts

Iris at Portencross

At last, a day on the bike. Anne and I got out for a nice short outing from Dalgarven Mill to Eglinton Park. When we got there we discovered the place was overrun by dogs and doggy people running themselves silly on a dog agility competition.
We stood about for a bit watching the dogs and owners generally making a mess of it.
Must be frustrating, all that training for a two minute competition where the dog forgets everything and runs around in circles randomly tackling obstacles while the owner shouts themself hoarse. Its great to watch!
I suppose its more of a social event for most of them, plenty of time to spend in the beer tent between each bout of doggy fun and games.

PM got out on the MTB over Scary Glentane along to Fairlie, the ground's a bit on the soft side now so the uphill rough stuff is getting to be hard(er) work.
The lovely little stream crossing at Fairlie Glen had an unusual hazard I didn't notice until half way across, lots of beer cans cooling in the water! I think I dodged them all but there was quite a collection so one or two may have suffered dilution. Hope the 4 young lads camping there clean up behind themselves. I'm sure it wont be long before I'm up there again and find out (must remember to take a bag or two to collect the fall out).

Yesterday I was clearing some weed out of my little pond in the back door and thought I saw a fish but looking closer it turned out to be a newt larva, then another and another. I was so chuffed to see some more wildlife in our little pond (its more like a deep puddle really). I managed a few bits of video and mixed it into some other wildlife shots from around the garden and a bit of local stuff. Its hardly exciting but then not everything is interesting AND exciting as well...hmmm?...some things aren't interesting OR exciting... I enjoyed making it though and I'm sure I'll enjoy coming back to view it again sometime soon view it here.

PS I found on the web that newts aren't cute little harmless beasties, a chap died from swallowing one as a dare their skin is toxic and covered in nasty bacteria....yuck!...swallow a newt?...I don't think I'll go there!