A walk with Lennie Bell in January.
On 5th January on a lovely cold day Tom and I walked to upper Stennieswater.
I love to see the first Snowdrops of the year and the North Lodge is the place to see them.
Our granddaughter in California at a school party.
After the Snowdrops we have the Daffodils and this was in mid March between the two bridges
One of my favourite places is Kippford and on 27th March we had a lovely days walking over there.
In April we held our 50th Wedding Anniversary get together in The Buccleuch Centre. It was 4 months early but the only time all the Graham family would be together since the last time 4 years ago. This is my good friends who joined us for the event.
The Graham family minus Thomas who was poorly.
Our 5 Grandchildren, Hannah, Eleanor, Leo, Thomas, and Elliot.
As Thomas missed the family photo on the day of the event this was from the previous day. He had just burnt himself out with travel plus 3 games of Football the previous day and after sleeping most of the day he was fighting fit again. He scored 3 goals in the Football matches and thoroughly enjoyed himself.
In May we visited the Outer Hebrides for a week with John and Sandria and stayed in a cottage on North Uist. Just a couple of miles from the cottage I saw my first Corncrake. I have heard them many times on my Island trips but never seen one so this was a very lucky photograph.
On the Wednesday we visited Vatersay, Barra, Eriskay, South Uist, Benbecula, and a couple of the smaller islands and this is East Beach on Vatersay.
This is Barra airport on the beach. I flew into here many years ago. It is probably one of the most spectacular airports in the world and on this day there were loads of visitors waiting for the daily flight from Glasgow.
In June Hannah and Leo came to Langholm for a few days and spent a day on Tarras Valley Nature Reserve planting some trees with me. They loved doing it and hopefully will be back in 2023 to plant some more.
Langholm Walks Group raised almost £6,000 to purchase new seats on various Langholm Walks routes. We placed 2 of these picnic tables on TVNR. The seats were sponsored by Niall and Elspeth Weatherstone and Niall is photographed here with the TVNR Team, Jenny, Angela, and Kat.
In July Gaye and I were treated to our lunch in Newcastle in a lovely Cafe on the Tyne
After an 18 month closure of Gaskell's Walk Langholm Walks Group managed to get a diversion put in place a few days before Common Riding. This was it but it was not exactly what we wanted and took a further few months to get sorted. Fortunately D & G Council accepted our proposals and ensured that work was done to ensure the safety of walkers by putting in a barrier on the steep slope and they paid for everything as it is part of the Core Path network.
In August we were treated to lunch in St. Boswells by John and Sandria to celebrate our 50th Wedding Anniversary.
A lovely lunch with good friends
September was a very busy month for us with a visit to South Wales, Isle of Coll and then we flew to California for a month with Fraser and family. This is Gaye and Leslie on their way to a shopping trip.
One of the nicest beaches on Coll. We were there for 3 days as guests of Bob and Sheila Milne. Bob was there for 2 weeks as a Locum Minister so we stayed in the old Manse. We had a superb few days on this lovely island.
This is Sammy the Golden Retriever. I walked with him almost every day during our month long holiday and we became such good friends. He is such a loveable rogue.
The Graham family in the garden on a lovely evening before we left for home the following day.
The Graham girls, Gaye, Leslie, and Eleanor off on another shopping trip. In our month is California we never had a cloud in the sky.
Fraser with Gaye in the Big Tree State Park. We stayed in a log cabin for a couple of nights and thoroughly enjoyed our time in the mountains.
We had only been back a couple of weeks when Fraser sent us this photograph of Thomas as his team had won a big Soccer tournament in California over a weekend when he played 4 games. He just loves his Soccer and also plays Baseball. During the winter months skiing is his activity and even although he is only 11 he manages the Black adult runs as he is such a good skier.
Another of the 9 seats provided by Langholm Walks Group with this one on Tarras Valley Nature Reserve near the bridge. John came down for a couple of days and enjoyed his walk on TVNR.
The family with us for Christmas and Hannah and Leo showing how much they have grown. Both of them are now taller than Gaye. It has been a wonderful year with holidays in Wales, Outer and Inner Hebrides and then a month in California. Unfortunately it ended with both Gaye and I taking ill with Covid just 2 weeks before Christmas but we managed to be clear of it just in time for the family coming.
