Ninewells Arboretum, Riverside Nature Park and the Botanic Gardens Cafe 24.2.14

Today the Monday walkers had intended to go up to Invergowrie for a walk, however the bus we were on broke down so we had a last minute change of plan and instead decided to walk through Ninewell's new Arboretum (where our bus broke down) and along through Riverside Nature Park to the Dundee Botanic Gardens for a coffee.

Before getting in to the arboretum itself we passed the newly constructed Ninewells Community Garden where our Greenbuds group go gardening on Fridays.

They had clearly been very busy!

 

 

The snowdrops were out in the arboretum and their was of course a variety of interesting trees.

We saw the Maggies centre which is a very funky building.

We then walked along to the Riverside Nature Park.

Riverside Nature Park has been created from Dundee's old landfill site and opened in 2011.  Trees and wildflowers have been planted to form new wildlife habitats.

 

Just before leaving the Nature Park we made friends with one of the locals.

We then headed to the Botanic Gardens cafe for refreshment.  A great day was had by all.

Forfar Lochs 17.2.14

Today the group went for a walk around Forfar Loch after getting the bus from Dundee.  The weather was a bit dreich so the group walked at a brisk pace.  

The loch had a variety of wildlife...

 

...as well as some unusual fungus.

The loch itself is surprisingly big and the walk was almost 3 miles long.

Near the end of the walk there's a stone and a little decorative dyke commemorating the Forfar Witches and also stating the fact that they were just (very unfortunate) people.

In 1563 the newly created Church of Scotland made it illegal to either be a witch or to consult a witch in an attempt to stamp out pagan practices. This Act of Parliament was not abandoned until 1736. In between 1563 and 1736 is known from documentary evidence that at least 1,500 people were executed for the crime of being a witch.  To this total Forfar contributed 42 people suspected of being witches, of whom at least 9 were executed. Only 3 were men.

 It was a very nice part of the world and a great day was had by all.