Fresh Air and Water frolics at Raith Lake in Scotland

Hello Hello Hivians

It's Wednesday and that means that it's time to document and post another walk I took in Scotland.

This walk is actually the second part and continuation of Fresh Air Frolics on a Scottish country walk which I posted three weeks ago.

Apologies for the tardiness of this second and final part of the walk, but my excuse is that I was on holiday in Orkney for 2 weeks, so yep you guessed there will be plenty of Orkney walks coming up over the next peedie while!

Last time we parted as I was following this gorgeous wee pup to Raith Lake.

Okay so strictly speaking, he was not wee nor a pup, but as a big dog lover I think all dogs are still puppies or pups no matter their age or size!

What about you? Do you think all dogs are pups?

Anyway away up the trail we went ...

Deeper into the land of the uprooted trees we went ...

Believe it or not, the fallen tree acts as a bridge over a burn, although we have had so little rain this summer that the burn is more like a trickle!

Up another hill and it looks like some little NEDs or hoodlums or plain little bawbags have broken some of these planks in the fence,it is quite a drop down the other side.

On we pressed and got to practice our Green Cross Code...

Did you have the Green Cross Code or Green Cross Man?

It was for kids to learn to cross the rode safely and basically was :

• Think.
• Stop.
• Look and listen.
• Wait.
• Look and listen again.
• Arrive alive.

We safely crossed the road and arrived alive!

We arrived into what I call Ivy alley, I do love ivy climbing up these trees, it reminds me of camouflaged soldiers with ivy on their clothes and helmets!

Along the trail to Raith Lake we went, and then stopped at a gap in the trees ...

What did we see when I looked for something?

It was a swan on her nest. Interestingly the nest is on a very small island, last year there was a much much bigger island of reeds where the whole family could sit if they wanted.

The nest was on the other side of the lake, so we would hopefully get a better view when we got over to the lake.

I haven't been to Raith Lake this year much, maybe a couple of times. Batty did tell me that the water level had dropped and there were not as many reed beds as normal, and they had moved too from last year, so be prepared for some changes to the lake!

That sounded intriguing!

The wee burn that ran along the side of the Lake did seem lower than normal. Maybe Batty was right!

Past our Sequoia tree we went, is that how you spell it?

Wild, go wild, go wild in the country
Where snakes in the grass are absolutely free

I think that plant looks like snake heads and I always have the lyrics from Go Wild In The Country from Bow Wow Wow in my head when I walk past here!

Enough of that did you know there is #alwaysaflower

Then we rounded the Lake onto the other side and it was time for a ...

... snack and in this case a banana.A quick boost of energy and away we went. Actually, Mrs T had spotted a big heron through the trees, but before I could get a shot it had fluffed off!

Next up was daff corner. Do you see the remnant of stalks all over the right of the picture. That is from daffodils. In spring this are is heaving and covered in daffodils hence I call if daff corner. Mrs T who is used to me naming everything, calls it my daft corner!

Normally the path here has a few muddy patches, but it has been so dry that there was none!

Then on we went further until we reached the marker of last year!

Yes it was what I liked to call the coconut bra.

It is a bird feeder though, and the numpty that is fluffing me forgot to bring some more food in a coconut shell. I have got two and forgot them!

Oh well, gives me an excuse to come back!!!

Here is the vantage point from where I could see the nest of last year and where I fed the swans!

No such luck this year. The island has gone and the new nest we cannot see from here!

Somebody had clearly been trigger happy with a saw!

Perhaps it was the filming set of The Raith chainsaw massacre 🪚

But wait what is that through this tree!

Do you remember that Mrs T saw a big bird and I could not get a snap of it before it flew off?

Well here we see it thanks to the zoom on my toy 📷 that it is a grey heron. I thought it might have been a great white egret but nope it is a grey heron.

Taking advantage of the fish.

Now remember BATTY said to me there were some changes...

What the fluff!!!

There was a boy in a wee boat fishing!

Raith Lake used to be a fishery, but shut in Covid and then never reopened because the however refused to do some upgrades that were required by the authorities, this included altering the water level.

The couple that had rented the lake and made a successful fishery had their hands tied and were long gone, as were any fisherman.

What the fluff times 2!!

On the other side of the lake there was another old boy fishing on the bank!

I have not seen this before and I hope they leave fish for the birds!

Once they closed permanently they dismantled the wooden boat pier that the fishery had.

Now I noticed that the wooden office building had been dismantled and removed too.

I guess that is why these two anglers had moved in!

You might remember that the lake has two swan families, one at each end and I wanted to see the story with the family up this end!

Can you see what I could see?

Yes on her throne! There was Swapna Swan sitting on her nest.

I had a wee chat with her.

She was on her own, as her mate Saachar was away getting some food.

So not wanting her to leave the nest I bade her farewell as I could not get to her with my food!

It was time to head back for home.

It seems someone had put something up. @bozz made a comment about the size of tyre swing in the first part of this walk.

There this one is much bigger and more like a car tyre, mind you my tyre-swinging days are long gone!

But the child in me still loves to ...

...climb trees once in a while!

And by that I will leave you with those two wee crackers from that picture above!

This concludes Fresh Air and Water frolics at the Lake in Scotland and is my post for this week's #wednesdaywalk challenge hosted by @tattoodjay in collaboration with #makemesmile hosted by @elizacheng.

Thanks for visiting and enjoy the rest of your day!