Red Squirrels - Still Hunting

We're still hunting for the two groups of red squirrels which were introduced into the area at the end of last year.  We've done some asking around and are now confident we know where to find the group which is living behind the Lawson Hospital at the southwest end of town but today we went searching for what are the most northerly group of red squirrels in Scotland.  They are reputed to be somewhere along Queen's Drive, a track which runs through the forestry at the back of the town and northeastwards along the upper slopes of Dunrobin woods.

It was a walk of some four and a half miles on a beautiful morning during which we had some fine views southwards over the town but we gave up when we found no signs of any squirrels.  However, we fell into conversation with a young mother taking her teenage son for a walk on the instruction of his teacher, after which he had to write about what he saw, so we told them about the possible location of the red squirrels.  As luck would have it we bumped into them as we walked home.  They had seen a squirrel.  We just hadn't walked quite far enough.

So we had to be content with a small fungus as our most exciting find.  At least it is one which I have some hope of identifying: it may be a conifer mazegill which, as the name suggests, grows on dead conifer trees.

On our way home we broke for a rest in this quarry, from which the estate is extracting aggregate.  The N-registration harvester dumped here is still in remarkable condition but what interested us was that the excavations had turned up what was probably the rubbish heap for one of the now-lost croft houses, in which we found....

....this rather neat little glass bottle.  It's about 3" high and has, on its side, the words 'Valentine's Meat Juice'.  This was a meat extract invented by a Mr Valentine in the 1870s which was supposed to be good for people who needed to recover from serious illness, though, according to this site, the potion may have contained rather too much arsenic.