Leo's 2nd Birthday

 Granny Gaye with Hannah & Leo

 The birthday boy opens his presents with big sister looking on

 Leo can really find his way round the I Pad

 Me and my girl

 Thats a lot of food to get through

 Hannah and Annelisa

Leo wanted to blow out his 2 candles but he needed help from Jack

Black Esk Reservoir Walk

 Another Wednesday so another walk and this time we headed north up to the Black Esk Reservoir. The weather was glorious and the sun shone for most of the 7.5 mile walk round the reservoir.

 There are plans to increase the height of the dam and therefore increase the amount of water it holds. Looking closely at this photograph you will see the tear in my trousers in a very embarrasing place caused by some barbed wire on a fence. 

 This line of Cherry trees below the dam were laden with fruit, although it is not very clear in this photograph.

Tom reckons they will never increase the hight of the dam as people will object, but there are only a few people in the whole area so unlikely anybody would object.

Hartside Walk and the Highest Cafe in England

 It was Tom's choice for the regular Wednesday Walk so he selected this walk from an excellent publication produced by the Penrith Ramblers of Walks in the Eden Valley. Tom advised us this would take us to the highest cafe in England so we set off from Gamblesby with eager anticipation and looking forward to a nice cup of tea and lunch at the cafe. On our way to the start of the walk in Gamblesby we met Tootlepedal and Dropscone on the A7 as they headed off on their daily cycle. This started an interesting discussion on the merits of cycling or walking and we decided we prefer the weekly full day walk rather than a daily cycle. The crack is much better when you are walking than cycling and in a day's walk we can solve all the world's problems. Anyway we headed up the lovely footpaths to Hartside climbing from the start at 500ft to almost 2000ft at the summit. On arrival at the summit we discovered the cafe was closed so Mr. Stothart was not the most popular person in the area and John and I made his life miserable for at least an hour.

 This is on the route down from Hartside and it is called the Ricker Gill crossing. This bridge was just completed this year and it replaces a rather old semi-derelict bridge. It is a splendid bridge and must have cost a fortune. I would love to have that amount of money to spend on the Langholm Walks.

Ricker Gill Bridge

The Hawick Hut

This weeks Wednesday walk was an exploratory walk in Hawick to look at a route for David's Birthday walk on 30th November. The walk is from the booklet "Walking in the Land of the Reivers" by I.W.Landles and A.G. Brydon. This is walk no 11 Hawick Common and Goldielands Tower and follows the route of the Hawick Cornet and his followers.

The photograph above is the famous Hawick "HUT" where on three occasions in early June in this unprepossessing wooden building a young man elected annually to lead the celebration, is entertained with songs and toasts by the men of Hawick. In the words of Ian landles "It sits here for fifty yin weeks neglected and sorry for itsel then it embarks on its yince a year week o glorious pulsatin life when it hez come ti encapsulate a' Hawick's hopes and dreams for it becomes the verra pulse o Hawick patriotism, the soul o Hawick song and story, the hub o Hawick's history and heritage" 

 The Ca'Knowe

This is a stone cairn marking the spot where the Burgess Roll was called at the annual checking of the marches of Hawick Common.

Hawick Moor (The Mair)

It's proper name is St. Leonard's Park and it is the location for the huge communal picnic on Common Riding Friday and Saturday and has been used for the Common Riding horse racing since 1856.