Timpanogos Caves

As soon as we arrived in Salt Lake City Fraser told me he had booked an early morning trip round Timpanogos Caves. This meant leaving the house at 6.30am and driving for 40 minutes into the Wasatch Mountains to American Fork Canyon and then walking 2 miles up 1200ft to an elevation of 6730ft for a 9.00am tour of the caves. This was a great way to beat Jet Lag so we picked up his Nephew Jacob and off we headed into the mountains on another beautiful morning.

The Magnificent Seven

For the first time ever we had seven walkers for John's Birthday Walk. His friend Ken from Edinburgh joined us for the day. He is the only one still working and he had to pay a Locum to stand in for him today. Working is so tough these days.
We headed off to the Borders Union Railway Station at Whitrope on the old Waverley Line. The walk was an 8 mile circular taking us to Riccarton Junction further down the line. At one time there were 118 people living at Riccarton and the only way in or out was by the railway.

Lunch on a well placed log.

All that remains of Riccarton Station.

Back at Whitrope Station there was a Buffet Train sitting just waiting for the customers that never come.

40 Years Ago This Week

Fourty Years ago on 26th August 1972 Gaye and I were married. There was no Facebook or Blogs to post photographs on then but better late than never. This week we head to Utah to see Fraser and our two American Grandchildren leaving behind Fiona and our two half Dutch Grandchildren. It has been an amazing 40 years and I would not have missed one single day and we are so proud of our four amazing and quite different in character Grandchildren.

Gabrielle looking very beautiful and she still looks good after all those years. The same cannot be said about me.

The wedding party from L to R Davie McGinn, Doris Graham, Shiela McQuade, Doreen Boyle, Gavin, Gaye, John Irving, Hilary Moody, Thomas Graham, Florence McDonald McArthur Kerr Chisholm McGinn. She always said she had all those names so will give her the credit now.

We see our bridesmaids maybe once a year but Best Man John is still my Best Friend after 55 years of friendship and we meet up at least twice a month to go walking.

Four beautiful girls

Wednesday Walk Resumes

Having had a few weeks break from our weekly walk due to bad weather, illness (Tom), and a sore knee (David & Me) we headed out to Allonby on the Cumbria coast to walk to Silloth and then get the bus back to Allonby. The weather forecast said it would rain at 3.00pm and as we boarded the bus at 3.09pm the heavens opened. It was a splendid walk and finished with a lovely cream tea in a new small cafe in Silloth.

This is a view of Criffell on the other side of the Solway.

Silloth Golf Club and one of the greens we walked past. A certain Langholm Blogger would be delighted with the green as it looked in absolute perfect condition but I bet the golfers found it difficult to get onto the green as it is elevated on all 4 sides. The golf course looks really tough and with the wind blowing as it was today there must be a lot of golf balls loss in the heather surrounding many of the fairways. 

John and Peter

Birthday Treat

A couple of weeks ago I decided to take Gaye for a couple of days to Portpatrick instead of buying her a birthday present. Our friends Jean & Wattie Rutherford were keen to join us so on Monday we headed of to Portpatrick. Unfortunately we had to attend the funeral of Nan Brown on the way there so left Jean & Wattie in Castle Douglas for a couple of hours. We stayed in the Rickwood Hotel and it was excellent and I can recommend it to anybody wishing to go to this lovely town.

The view from our Hotel Bedroom.

Portpatrick

On Tuesday morning after a superb breakfast we headed to Wigtown as Gaye wished to see the place where she was brought up as a child. This is the Cafe Bookshop and provided us with excellent coffee and cakes as well as a load of good books. Wigtown is smaller than Langholm and has 11 bookshops as it is Scotland's Book Town. It is worth a visit especially during the last week of September and the first week of October during the annual Book Festival.

This house is where Gaye lived until she was 13 until her mother and father sadly died in 1957 and 1958. The house is exactly the same since she lived there and is in need of some repairs.  

Jean & Gaye at Wigtown Harbour which like her old house is in need of some repairs as it is badly silted up and rarely used these days.

After leaving Wigtown we headed for Kirkcudbright and an Ice Cream near the Harbour. Judging by the faces eating these Ice Creams was a very serious business.

Our final port of call on the way home was Rockliffe near Dalbeattie. On the estuary of the Urr this small village is much less commecialised than it's neighbour Kippford but is a lovely place to go for a walk along the shore.

In Memory of a Lovely Lady

This photograph taken in August 2010 is of Gaye with her good friend Margaret Rodger and Margaret's mother Nan Brown at the farm Comlongon Mains near Ruthwell. Sadly Mrs. Brown died a week ago and Gaye and I were at her funeral in Urr Church on Monday. Mrs. Brown moved to the Haugh of Urr 70 years ago as a Land Army girl from her home in Cambuslang where she was employed in a biscuit factory. She married Andy Brown and lived in the Urr Valley for the rest of her life. She was one of the hardest working women Gaye has ever met and with her support and hard work the farm became a great success. Until just a few weeks ago she was still driving from Dalbeattie every week on a Sunday to spend the day at Comlongon Mains and was also to be found regularly on the Bowling Green. She was a lovely lady and Gaye will always value her friendship of over 50 years as she was very fond of Gaye. She will be sadly missed in the farming community in the Urr Valley.

A Reunion from Our Boy's Brigade Days

It seems just like yesterday when Niall, Jimmy, and myself were in the Boy's Brigade and meeting every Friday night and also going to the BB Camp in the summer. Jimmy & Elsie left Langholm to go to Australia in 1991 and Niall & Elspeth have just moved back to Langholm this summer but will spend our winters in Australia. We met up today for lunch in the Buccleuch Centre and had a very happy couple of hours reminicing about the old days. Hopefully we will all meet up again next year when Jimmy & Elsie again plan to come to Langholm.  

This was in Switzerland in 1971 with Jimmy kneeling and Niall on the extreme right.