I posted this here on Dog Walk Bloggs, http://www.dogwalkbloggs.com/showthread.php/85-An-egg-cellent-walk-at-Johnshill, but figured it would fit here too. Plus I may be more likely to get an answer to my egg and compost queries 
. On with the tale.
On Friday night I had an hour to kill while Jo was doing a run. It has been a while since I did the Johnshill wood walk and since showers were forecast it seemed like a good option for a walk. Plus Sam loves it.
I started from the carpark. On the map below I followed the dotted route until it hits the red route which I followed anticlockwise until I got back to the start and back to the car.
The walk from the carpark to the wood is on a relatively new path. It has been used by dog walkers for years but was only made into an official route in the last year. You can see the weather is looking changeable. As it worked out I managed to miss any rain.
As well as the new path from the carpark they have upgraded a lot of the paths. This as a mixed blessing. It does make it a lot dryer underfoot when it has been raining but does take away a bit from the wild wood walk feel. Still there are plenty of opportunities for off piste exploration.
Here we are at another of the high points of the walk where the path has been recently upgraded. There are usually some horses in the field for Sam to say Hi to. None on this occasion though, much to her disappointment.
On my way up to the maze I found this egg on the path. It was unusual in two ways. One in that it was undamaged. Egg shells on the paths and lying about are relatively common things to find but a whole undamaged egg is rare. The other strange thing is it was soft shelled. I have seen this with my hens quite a lot but not in the wild. I know it must happen but the first time I have seen one. I am assuming of course that it was laid soft and has not gone soft from some environmental factor.
The maze I mentioned is not anything like as neatly manicured as you are picturing. It is a big patch of rhododendrons with some rough paths through them. Muddy, muddy paths. I have always thought calling it a maze is a bit of a stretch. Still they have done some cutting back here too and put a sign up, well on a stone.
Either way Sam loves running through the bushes following rabbit scents. At one point I could hear her crashing through the undergrowth when a rabbit appeared on the path in front of me. I could have sworn it winked at me knowingly before it hopped back into the bushes to torment Sam some more.
Along with the path upgrades and new signs there have been a number of other things built that have been confusing me. Some still are. One of these was a wooden structure that looked like it might be for composting. Why this would be in the middle of the woods I could not figure out. Well now it is full of cut vegetation.
This really looks like it is for composting but why? Clearly it can't cope with the amount of vegetation available and it is not really a convenient spot. Is it just as a habitat for something? I really am curious about this, Sam less so but she likes to get in the picture
The high path on the last leg of the route is one of the few that has not been improved this year so it can be a bit muddy but was not to bad on this occasion.
With the spurt of growth we have had in the last few weeks it really does make the paths feel a lot more enclosed.
Before we returned to the car we stopped at the viewpoint for a while to sit on the bench and enjoy the view. It was also a chance for the now traditional self portrait of the participants
. On with the tale.On Friday night I had an hour to kill while Jo was doing a run. It has been a while since I did the Johnshill wood walk and since showers were forecast it seemed like a good option for a walk. Plus Sam loves it.
I started from the carpark. On the map below I followed the dotted route until it hits the red route which I followed anticlockwise until I got back to the start and back to the car.
The walk from the carpark to the wood is on a relatively new path. It has been used by dog walkers for years but was only made into an official route in the last year. You can see the weather is looking changeable. As it worked out I managed to miss any rain.
As well as the new path from the carpark they have upgraded a lot of the paths. This as a mixed blessing. It does make it a lot dryer underfoot when it has been raining but does take away a bit from the wild wood walk feel. Still there are plenty of opportunities for off piste exploration.
Here we are at another of the high points of the walk where the path has been recently upgraded. There are usually some horses in the field for Sam to say Hi to. None on this occasion though, much to her disappointment.
On my way up to the maze I found this egg on the path. It was unusual in two ways. One in that it was undamaged. Egg shells on the paths and lying about are relatively common things to find but a whole undamaged egg is rare. The other strange thing is it was soft shelled. I have seen this with my hens quite a lot but not in the wild. I know it must happen but the first time I have seen one. I am assuming of course that it was laid soft and has not gone soft from some environmental factor.
The maze I mentioned is not anything like as neatly manicured as you are picturing. It is a big patch of rhododendrons with some rough paths through them. Muddy, muddy paths. I have always thought calling it a maze is a bit of a stretch. Still they have done some cutting back here too and put a sign up, well on a stone.
Either way Sam loves running through the bushes following rabbit scents. At one point I could hear her crashing through the undergrowth when a rabbit appeared on the path in front of me. I could have sworn it winked at me knowingly before it hopped back into the bushes to torment Sam some more.
Along with the path upgrades and new signs there have been a number of other things built that have been confusing me. Some still are. One of these was a wooden structure that looked like it might be for composting. Why this would be in the middle of the woods I could not figure out. Well now it is full of cut vegetation.
This really looks like it is for composting but why? Clearly it can't cope with the amount of vegetation available and it is not really a convenient spot. Is it just as a habitat for something? I really am curious about this, Sam less so but she likes to get in the picture
The high path on the last leg of the route is one of the few that has not been improved this year so it can be a bit muddy but was not to bad on this occasion.
With the spurt of growth we have had in the last few weeks it really does make the paths feel a lot more enclosed.
Before we returned to the car we stopped at the viewpoint for a while to sit on the bench and enjoy the view. It was also a chance for the now traditional self portrait of the participants
