Philorth Halt to Rathen Station: the first dog rose

Dr Anne has recently posted many pictures of the splendid roses blooming in her garden. This inspired Grey Granite and Rufus to walk the Line from Philorth Halt to Rathen to see if the dog roses are in flower yet. The first bushes close to the Halt had well developed leaves but showed no signs of even flower buds.

Looking back towards Philorth Halt from close to Miltown of Philorth. The gorse is no longer in flower but has been replaced by broom.  The low lying, marshy fields on the right of the track are known as Wet Fold and Mill Haugh, both are currently golden with buttercups, interspersed with pale mauve cuckoo flowers and the occasional ragged robin.

 Blossom on one of the several apple trees growing on this section of track.

Common Violet (Viola riviniana) delicate flowers growing under the shelter of the broom .

 The damper sections of the line towards Milltown of Cairnbulg are colonised by aniseed scented sweet cicely, broom and willows. The two large trees are sycamores, currently in flower.

At last, on the section of track leading to Rathen Station, we found a dog rose which had  a single flower  just starting to open

Rathen Station is in the distant trees, the dog rose was deep in the broom on the right of the track.

Grey Granite and Rufus returned to Philorth Halt after a detour through Philorth Woods. As we approached the station we were surprised to see a long fluorescent crocodile walking along the Line towards Fraserburgh. This proved to be an extremely well behaved group of staff children from, Grey Granite thinks, Rathen School, together with their teachers. Grey Granite was pleased to see that they were making such good use of their local environment.