Walking the Dog.

I had to deliver some saplings donated by the Woodland Trust to the Newbattle apiary today. Took the dogs with me and we went through the woods for a walk. There's and awful lot of blip material there including interesting trees, a river, bridges for crossing said river, joggers and people walking dogs. It has the advantage over Roslin Glen and its environs that it looks, and is, private land; not a lot of people go there so it does not collect much litter.
Maybe it is a little too tidy and well managed as, although there are some spectacular flora, I was not aware of much fauna; I could hear the odd woodpecker but no other bird song and no sign of animal activity. There must be animals there as there is evidence of a fox having forced an entry into the apiary; we must keep an eye out for that sort of thing, foxes won't do any damage, they might even deter birds sitting at the hive entrances picking off bees as they go about their business (tits are well known for this) but badgers, they're big strong brutes who can topple a hive and brave the stings to eat both honey and larvae.

Some of the dog-walkers wear rather loud jackets, I had to photoshop this one to tone it down a little.