John's Birthday Walk to Scott's View

For the last few days we had been watching the ominous weather reports for todays Birthday Walk for John. We headed for Newtown St. Boswells to start at 10.00am just as the rain stopped and it remained nice for the rest of the day. 

The first stop was The Temple of the Muses with Birthday boy John giving them the once over. This was built as a tribute to Borders poet James Thomson born 1700 and died 1748. 

Next stop the statue to William Wallace 

This is Scotts View and I am ashamed to say I have never been there before but it is one of the finest views in Scotland.

The last section of the walk brought us to the 3 bridges over the Tweed at Leaderfoot. This is the old railway viaduct.

The modern road bridge. I have nothing complimentary to say about this one except that it probably does its job well but it is fairly ugly. 

And last but by no means least the oldest bridge which is now for pedestrians only.

This must be one of the most photogenic sights in the Borders and well worth a wee seat. The last mile of the walk took us along the A69 which was very busy so no photographs and nothing to see. We ended up with a meal at the Buccleuch Hotel in St. Boswells after a superb walk. 

Kens Birthday Walk and the Strange Story of Elizabeth's Boots

Today was Ken's Birthday Walk so he selected a starting point near the village of Holburn in Northumberland not far from Berwick-upon-Tweed. The walk was a 7 mile circular taking in St. Cuthbert's Cave and following parts of the St. Cuthbert's Way and showing some wonderful views of Northumberland and Holy Isle on the coast. Sandria's sister Sheila joined us today as a guest Last of the Summer Wine walker. She is visiting Edinburgh for the Festival and was delighted to join this select group. 

St. Cuthberts cave is very near the start of the walk. Photographs taken near and in the cave were very dark so this is the best view I managed.

The views from the cave are spectacular. These fields of Barley have all been harvested but there are many fields in the area still waiting for the combine harvester.  

There are several of these outcrops on the walk and this one we walked round the back of.  

These feet belong to Elizabeth and you will see that the left foot (size 10) is larger than the right (size 7) which was Peter's fault as he put their boots in the car and managed to bring his own and one of hers along with another of his old boots. She managed to walk the 7 miles without too much difficulty but husband Peter is in big trouble for this mistake and revenge will be taken in some form or another in due course.

The Holy Island of Lindisfarne in the distance with the tide out.

The highest point of the walk looking north towards Scotland

We are looking west towards the Scottish Borders and the Heather is looking beautiful.

The Trig point on the highest point of the walk but still below 1000ft. 

This is a field of Poppies for use in the Pharmaceutical industry according to our two retired Pharmacists John and Ken.

Our guest walker Sheila with her future brother in law John and a beautiful bunch of Heather.
We finished the day with a nice meal in an Italian Restaurant in Wooler.

Bowling With the Last of the Summer Wine Walkers

Instead of our usual Wednesday walk we held our annual bowling morning at the Old Town Green this morning. Several members were unable to attend but it was an excellent morning in lovely weather. Tom is up in Edinburgh visiting Martin and enjoying the Edinburgh Festival while Niall and Elspeth are on holiday at Dunblane Hydro. 

Ken has a nice delivery but constantly plays the wrong bias.

Elizabeth only started to bowl in May and is coming on very well.

John is a natural but of course its in the genes as his father was an excellent bowler.

David shows great potential and like all good sportsmen can soon adapt to the game.
A most enjoyable day in excellent company.

A Walk Through Jesmond Dene

This lovely walk is just half a mile from Fiona's house so I parked the car at Paddy Freeman's Park and did a 3 mile loop through the Dene. Loads to see including an Old Mill and waterfall plus Children's Pets Corner at the south end of the walk. 

The Waterfall just up from the Old Mill 

The Old Mill

Plenty of old bridges cross the Dean so you can walk on either side of the river

The Armstrong Bridge where just over 2 years ago we were picnicking just next to these bushes when I heard a loud thud and we discovered a poor soul had jumped off the bridge. We never did find out if he was killed as a result of his fall but I can still hear the thud today.

A Day at Alnwick Gardens

A visit to Alnwick Gardens has been on my "to do" list for many years so we headed off to see it today. We forget how busy these places are at this time of the year and it was heaving with visitors, but still a most enjoyable experience. The water feature is fantastic and worth the £10 entrance fee alone.

A Visit to Holy Isle

On arrival at the house on Sunday I had to pick these Blackberries. There is only 1 bush in the garden but it is absolutely laden with berries and I anticipate we will pick as many as this every other day this week.

We are staying in Newcastle this week so we can explore Northumberland while Fiona and the family are visiting Fraser in California. On Monday we headed for Holy Isle along with thousands of other visitors as August is such a busy month here and the sun was shining. 

The causeway was flooded in places as these next 2 photographs show. The car was covered in salt water which dried on very quickly in the sun so I had to have the car put through a carwash to get rid of the salt.

In places the water was quite deep

The bridge in the centre of the causeway 

We then headed to Alnmouth for a walk along the beach and we only just arrived there when we met Islay and Lochan who are Niall & Elspeth Weatherstone's grandchildren. They were on a camping holiday with their Mum & Dad. Quite a coincidence as we knew they were on the Northumberland coast but no idea where. 

Lochan and I had to go for a paddle, but the sea was very cold.

The girls were not as brave as Lochan and me.

An RAF Helicopter came overhead just after I had been in the sea so maybe they were worried about me.