Dumyat

Josh was at football camp today and Ky declined the invitation to join us so it was just Coco, D and I who headed to the Ochils to climb Dumyat. This was the first time I've climbed it despite it only being 30 minutes away and I was pleasantly surprised that it was quite a gentle climb, a nice wee hill walk. The views were tremendous and reminded us just how beautiful Central Scotland is. You can see Wallace's Monument, Stirling Castle and Stirling University in this shot. There were also fantastic views of the meandering Forth. Despite the easy climb I really wished I'd taken a hat, half way up I was stripping off layers but the wind at the top was bitter and we were unable to make ourselves heard. The pics I took of D and Coco all show a couple struggling to keep their footing with tears in their eyes. Well that might only have been D, Coco aka the mountain goat was having a great time and sure footedly made her way to the top. On her lead for the whole trip - the area was obviously frequented by livestock and the path looked like a eat all you want buffet for a beagle, thankfully she seemed just as keen as us to get to the top and soon started to ignore the delights on offer.
Coco and Cats
Coco hates cats - as a pup an exceptionally large and mean cat saw an opportunity to put a small pup in her place and ensure that she never bothered the feline breed by jumping on her back, all spite and claws - neither Coco or Ky have ever quite recovered and she now takes wide detours to avoid them. NOT if they're in her garden, Saturday morning, as I was dressing, a terrible noise came from the kitchen, thinking that the children and her has come to blows I ran down stairs in a state of undress to be advised that she had spotted a large, fluffy cat in the garden. As she wasn't going to stop the hullabaloo I let her out to see that the cat had gone but she proceeded to run around the garden making a mixture of high pitched squeals and deep barks - anyone hoping for a long lie was rudely awoken. Yesterday morning we encountered a young, and extremely brave young cat, who came straight up to her to say hello - they circled each other, had a little sniff and then went on there way, maybe cats weren't so bad. Oh no, this morning she was back to chasing the neighbours cat from the garden. It's only recently moved to the street and I hope that it soon decides to avoid the garden with the daft beagle and doesn't see it as some kind of sport.