Tiny Tuesday

Incredibish has set today's Tiny Tuesday challenge as 'Smooth' and I have interpreted it with a few strands of spider silk which we encountered by the loch, floating between a tree and a torn stump. I hope it is smooth - has anyone handled one to find out? Look in large for full view.

Our trip today was to Devilla Forest in Clackmannanshire for a walk among Lodgepole pines that were planted in the 1950's, hoping to catch a glimpse of the resident red squirrels.

There are several paths to choose for walking and four lochs, but we selected a route, described as 'a firm gravel surface throughout with some uneven sections, generally flat with some short fairly steep slopes,
1 1/2 miles (2.4 km), allow 1 hour'. This takes through pine forest (see extra 1, left) to the Bordie Loch,  past 'Danish Camp - or Trench Knowe', reputedly used by Scandinavian invaders but probably much older. There were several which we could not determine as trench or simply drainage ditches. Several trees showed the evidence of squirrels gnawing the bark, but no squirrel showed itself.

We came upon the Standard Stone, (see extra 3, top), a large slab of rock with two deep rectangular holes, 'linked by legend to Macbeth and an ancient battle' before turning at the head of the loch to admire the only water birds, a mallard and a beautiful teal (see extra 2, courtesy of Mr Flum's zoom lens) in the reeds, cotton grass and mossy margins. After all the pines, the return path goes through birch and a beautiful carved 'totem pole' (see extra 1, right).

We counted several bird species by their song, identified on Merlin app, but apart from the occasional blue tit, saw none. What we did see was rather too much evidence of dogs, either in discarded bags or raw, particularly close to the car park. It didn't spoil the walk but, really, do pick up and bin it, folks.

It was still early afternoon so we stopped for a wander round Culross, up to the Hanging Garden viewpoint where we peeped over the wall to admire all the apple blossom and bumblebees (see extra 3, bottom) before taking the coastal road home.