A Visit from John

John Irving arrived to spend a couple of days with us on Friday. Its a few months since he was last in Langholm so it was nice to see him and we planned a couple of walks. The first was a 4.5 mile circular walk round St. Bride's Hill which takes you up towards Arrisgill and then over into the next valley to Westwater. 

The start and finish of the walk at Wauchope School House.

This is the Forestry Road which takes you down into Westwater

The beautiful new house built up at Shaw by a young Langholm Businessman who has done so well in his contracting Forestry business. It is the perfect site with wonderful views.

The early part of the walk and the road up to Arresgill

This is a Falconry Breeding Centre established fairly recently at Westwater

The Forestry Road that takes you from the Logan water up the hill towards the Westwater Valley

This is the start of the last section of the walk which is on the B7068 road. We were fortunate in that this road is closed at the moment so there was no traffic at all on it. 

A view from the highest point up the valley towards Arresgill

The Logan Water on the way up towards Arresgill

The Farmhouse at Westwater

 

Saturday morning and another walk but this time it was not as clear and sunny as it had been on Friday. Tom joined us and we walked round The Pheasant pens and The Curly Snake

Taking it very carefully down the road from Pathead as the road was very icy underneath a light covering of snow. 

Tom and John on the Castleholm which hopefully will soon below to the community. It has been a hectic 36 hours and included dinner at the Eskdale on Friday evening and a visit to The Market at The Buccleuch Centre on Saturday morning. 

This one is for Irving Bell

 At Milntown this afternoon to see Langholm play Haddington I was given a telling off by Irving Bell about not posting any blogs recently so this hopefully will make up for it. On a cold frosty day but perfect conditions for open rugby Langholm took the field and by half time were 8-0 up. The second half saw Langholm pinned into their own half for 30 minutes during which Haddington scored a try, conversion and a penalty so were in the lead 8-10. Then in the last 15 minutes Langholm found their way and scored a lovely try a few minutes from the end and converted it to lead 15-10 until the final whistle 4 minutes later. These were some of my companions at the game and what a bunch they are. Irving, Tom, and Johnnie.

Haddington in red pressing the Langholm line early in the second half. 

This was half time

The final score

This was taken on Friday and shows them erecting Langholm's Christmas Tree and it must be one of the biggest ones in the country.

On Wednesday my daughter Fiona joined myself and Tom for our weekly walk and we did the 4.5 mile Kerr Triangle on a very damp and dour day but we enjoyed her company. She was over to see us to celebrate her 50th Birthday.  

To celebrate her birthday Fiona had fixed up a reunion with her 2 flatmates from Glasgow University days where she shared a flat with Helen and Graham for 2 years. Graham has spent most of his working life in Musical Theatre and appeared in many shows including Phantom and Les Miserable in the West End. His latest is a first time appearance as a Panto Dame in Newbury for a 6 week run. This is him on the left. Fiona and husband Mario flew to Bristol on Friday evening and then met Helen and her husband Matthew at Bristol airport on Saturday morning and they all went to Newbury for a 5.00pm show staring Graham as the Panto Dame. They then went for a meal after the show and will return to Newcastle and Edinburgh on Sunday morning.  

 

It's been an eventful week for the Graham family with our son Fraser starting a new job in USA. He has left Apple after 11 years and is now Director of Software Services at GM (General Motors). Its a change of industry but cars are now computers on wheels and GM are planning to go all EV in the future so this is the way forward and an interesting development in his exciting career. We are very proud of his achievements in USA. We are also very proud of our Fiona's achievements in her work at Newcastle University as a Lecturer in Speech Therapy. This photo was on Langholm Common Riding Day when he was over for a week with our grandson Tommy.

On a final note today I had great pleasure in messaging my grandson Tommy that Newcastle had beaten Chelsea today 4-1 at St James Park. This is Tommy in the visitors dressing room at the stadium during a special visit there in July. He loves his Football and plays regularly for a team in Silicon Valley where his full time coach is from Aberdeen and runs loads of Junior teams in the area. With this week being Thanksgiving in USA the family are up in the Sierra Nevada mountains and in about another month or so will be going on regular skiing trips up there. I think Tommy loves to Ski as much as he loves his Football. I deliberately say Football as of course in the US its Soccer but after his visit to Newcastle United in July Tommy announced its Football from now on.  

A Visit to The Bill McLaren Exhibition in Hawick

Tom and I met up with John in Hawick this morning, firstly for a walk round Wilton Park followed by lunch in The Pavilion Cafe and then a visit to Wilton Museum to see The Bill McLaren Exhibition.

A nice walk round Wilton Park

Some of Bill's famous comments during Rugby matches

Could only be Doddie Weir he was talking about 

A replica of Bill's study

His famous information sheets for each match he commentated on. The amount of detail in there is huge. It is a wonderful exhibition and well worth a visit. Its open until 27th November and its free but we left generous donations.

 

A Few Days in Newcastle

We have spent the last few days in Newcastle visiting Fiona and family. On Tuesday Fiona was not working and Hannah and Leo had a day off school due to it being an in-service day so Fiona took us to South Shields. In all the 23 years we have been going to see Fiona in Newcastle we have never been on the promenade on South Shields so this was a treat and the weather was perfect. 

It's not an easy journey to get there as you either have to head into town or go through the Tyne Tunnel so in this instance Fiona took us over the Tyne Bridge.

The entrance to the River Tyne and the other side is Tynemouth

We stopped at a beachfront cafe for a toast and a drink and these Starlings were very tame 

Hannah is great company and is soon going to explore more Dutch universities on a trip to The Netherlands with her dad and brother Leo later this month. 

 

On Wednesday my son in law Mario was going to collect groceries from Asda which is next to The Rising Sun Country Park so at 7.30am he dropped me of there so I could walk back to the house along the Waggonways and Bridlepaths. It was a 4 mile walk and only the last 200 yards along Teviotdale Gardens was on a public road. The paths through the Rising Sun Country Park were lovely and quiet and you would never realise you were in the middle of a city.

 

My walk passed Newcastle United Training Ground and even at that time of the morning fans were gathering to see the team arrive for light training. They had a big match that evening in The Champions League against Paris SG and won it in great style 4-1

These are the Waggonways which were used many years ago to transport coal from the many small mines to the River Tyne to be loaded onto ships.

On Wednesday afternoon I took Gaye to Whitley Bay for a Coffee and Scone in the Cafe frequented by Vera in the TV series of that name. It was a big disappointment as the Cheese Scone was almost uneatable. We did however manage a nice walk along the promenade afterwards.

Gaye outside the new Spanish City which used to be a fun fare but is now more upmarket Cafes, Restaurants, and Shops.

The beach at Whitley Bay. Some of these photos are not the size i wanted by my Laptop did not upload some of the photos from my phone so this blog was started on my Laptop and finished on my I-Phone.

A Walk on the Ullswater Way

Yesterday we headed to the Lake District and Ullswater for our Thursday walk. Mike, Charlie and myself left Langholm at 9.15am to be in Pooley Bridge in time for the 11.05am Ferry to Howtown. We allowed plenty of time to get a parking spot and were lucky that we managed to get a spot, but in another 15 minutes or so they would all have been taken. A quick Coffee at the Ferry Pier and then 25 minutes on the boat to Howtown. It was almost full with visitors and their dogs.

Ullswater from the Ferry. The sun never got out all day and at times we had a few spots of rain, but it was always very warm.

Mike and Charlie on the Ferry.

Once we were off the ferry we left all the people behind and soon we were walking along the side of the lake and maybe a couple of hundred feet above the lake level. This was a mountain stream that came through a small gap in the drystone dyke.

Ullswater and our Ferry disappearing in the distance.

Plenty of drystone dykes.

A very interesting and high stone stile in the dyke. Mike as usual leading the way.

The very small gate on the other side of the stile.

An interesting little valley we passed by on our walk.