Tom Provides a Spectacular Seat for Tarras Valley Nature Reserve

This is the new Recycled Plastic Seat sponsored by Tom Stothart for The Tarras Valley Nature Reserve. It is unique as it is the only one in the area which has arms. Tom wanted it to be different and he also wanted it to be in the furthest away point in the area felled a couple of years ago. Thanks to Simon Richardson's team for placing it in this difficult place. The views from it are spectacular. It may look a bit desolate just now but there is new growth and soon there will be many more native trees (not conifers) growing there.

If you are walking to it best route is go up the steepest part of the path on the right hand side of the ponds and go anti clockwise on the path to return down the left hand side of the ponds.

It's about a mile away from the entrance to the Ponds area that was created 18 months ago after the trees were all felled. This will eventually be a superb entrance to the lower part of The Tarras Valley Nature Reserve.

Cotton Grass is starting to grow in many places after the trees were felled

This area has superb 360 degree views as it is like a plateau.

Tom's seat at the furthermost point and by the time people reach it they will be glad to sit for a while.

Eventually this area will be planted with native trees and this is the view from his seat.

It would be nice if visitors could take a selfie of themselves on this seat and post it on social media

More Cotton Grass. Soon there will also be loads of Foxgloves

Bluebells growing profusely but they never look as good in photos as they are in real life. Langholm Walks Group is very grateful to Tom Stothart for sponsoring this seat and we wish everybody who sits on it a very happy experience of this part of Tarras Valley Nature Reserve. As Tom says on his seat "Rest and Enjoy". He didn't want a date to be put on the brass plaque as he is still very much alive and when the seat was sitting outside Langholm Initiative before it was brought up here somebody contacted me to ask if Tom had died as they had seen the seat with his name on it so I was happy to tell them he was very much still alive.

The Graham Family Together

A visit to a Nature Reserve in Newcastle with his Brother in Law Mario

Fraser with Mum and Dad at Northumberlandia in Newcastle today. We met up with Fiona for lunch at the  Snowy Owl Pub next to the park.

Fraser arrived from California last Saturday and spent a few days in Langholm before being taken to Newcastle to spend a couple of days with his sister Fiona

Coffee on Monday morning with the Hutton's. This was a regular place to visit when his friend Alistair lived there before they both headed off to University.

Followed by a visit to see Wilma and George in Bentpath

Photo courtesy of Mr. Tootlepedals blog

A visit to the Lower Tarras Nature Reserve at the Ponds

After our lovely week of sunshine in Berwickshire this was a bitterly cold day and Fraser was feeling the cold having just arrived from California.

Mother and Son. Gaye has had a lovely week with Fraser. It has been great having him for a few days and he is very relaxed as he is not working for a few weeks and taking a well earned rest. He heads back to California on Saturday morning.

 

A Visit to Coldingham Beach

Today we headed out to Coldingham Bay for a walk along the lovely beach there. The journey to Coldingham was a blaze of yellow from the many fields of Rape Seed

Looks as if this will be a good harvest as the flowers are looking good.

The beach has some lovely properties up at the top and many beach huts fringing it

It is maybe a bit early in the season for the beach huts to be getting used yet and especially as there was quite a cold wind blowing. We enjoyed a lovely coffee and savoury flapjack at the beach cafe. This coast in Berwickshire does not have the quantity of beaches like Northumberland.

A lovely house up the top with beach huts below it

More huts further along the beach

A wide expanse of sand an an incoming tide with it due to be hight tide at about 3.00pm

Gaye dressed to match the fields

Above the high tide mark

On our way home we stopped off at Eyemouth to do some shopping at the Co-Op next to it this work of art commemorates the storm of 1881when many fisherman were lost at sea and this depicts the women and children that were left to mourn them.

Back home at Burnmouth at about 3.00pm and its high tide with the sea the closest it has been this week to our cottage. These have been quite low high tides and the tide does often reach the base of the cottage.

A Day With The Last of the Summer Wine Walkers

Our friends from Langholm and Edinburgh arrived at 11.00am and after coffee we walked along the sea front to Partanhall. There used to be 16 cottages there but this is now 13 cottages as some have been combined to make larger ones. We spoke to a resident who told us there are only 3 cottages with residents and the rest are second homes or holiday homes. This area gets very few day visitors due to the steep road down and there are no facilities in the area for visitors eg shops or cafes. 

 Tom, John, Niall, Martin and Ken ready for the morning walk. They were joined by Sandria while Gaye, Elspeth and Aileen stayed in the cottage for a chat.

Gaye, Elspeth, Sandria, and Aileen on our afternoon walk to Ross just a little way along the coast

The view from Ross looking back at our holiday cottage

The view from the cottage to Ross

The Last of the Summer Wine Walkers

I included myself in this one. We have had a smashing day with good friends. A nice lunch in the Clubroom Restaurant at Eyemouth Golf Club and the sun shone all day.

A Return to Spittal After 66 Years

This is the promenade in Spittal. I camped with the Boy's Brigade in Spittal in 1959 and 1960 so it's 60 years since I was last here. At the BB Camp in 1959 we had a wood burning range for cooking and every bit of wood in the area was scavenged to keep it going. We didn't have a single drop of rain that week.

The pier at Berwick upon Tweed and the mouth of the river Tweed

I remember watching the fishermen catching salmon in nets from the beach 60 years ago. They rowed out in a half circle dragging the nets behind them and then pulled them in. They caught loads of Salmon in those days. The numbers decreased and then the Tweed Fishing Associations bought their licences and closed them down

A closer look at the pier and Lighthouse

Where we camped in 1959/60 is now Council houses by the look of them from a distance but nothing much else has changed in Spittal

Back at the Old Lobster House in Burnmouth it's now just after high tide and that's as close as the sea will get this week. In the visitors book there are comments about the cottage shaking at high tide in a storm. The building was built over 300 years ago so it must be very strong.

A Steep Morning Walk Followed by a Trip to Dunbar and St. Abbs

My morning walk was once again along the shore to Partanhall, but today I climbed the path up the cliff to come back a different way. I needed a rest at the top so had a seat and used The Merlin bird app on my phone to identify 16 birds in 10 minutes

Looking down to the shore from my seat

The narrow part of the path

Overlooking Burnmouth Harbour

The old road from the houses. Last winter the low road to the houses was blocked for a month after a very bad storm. Only people with 4x4 vehicles could use this road. 

It's not to bad at the start and then gets progressively worse.

Gaye with John Muir on Dunbar High Street

The Bridge to Nowhere on Belhaven Beach at Dunbar. Unfortunately the high tide was not very high today so instead of going nowhere the bridge continued to go somewhere.

From Dunbar we headed down to St Abbs

Just outside the harbour entrance the sea was quite rough in places.

Fortunately the harbour was quite calm

Not much going on in the harbour, but it looked as if a lot of fishing boats use it

This was an hour or two after high tide so the fishing boats must have left

While I was walking round the harbour Gaye had a sleep in the car and was woken by a terrible noise on the roof. It was this Herring Gull stomping on the roof of the car.