Boy's Day out at Melrose

A few weeks ago John and I planned a day out at Melrose and a walk on the river Tweed. That day arrived and what a glorious day it was. Tom and I met Martin, John, and Ken at Tweedbank Station on the train from Edinburgh and we headed to Melrose to start our 4 miles walk.

This is just past the Greenyards Rugby ground the home of Melrose

 This is the Greenyards and in my opinion the most beautiful sighted rugby ground in the country. 

The main square in Melrose. It was a very busy day in the town with loads of visitors.

We soon headed up river and this is the footbridge we will cross at the end of our walk when we return down the other side of the river.

It was a perfect day. Cold at first and no wind but in the sun it became quite warm

There were a few fishermen about but none using the boats

The fastest flowing bit of the river

One of the fishermen just above the footbridge

Heading up river

The footbridge from the other bank near the end of our walk

Time for a rest and a posed photo. Tom, Gavin, Martin, Ken, and John. Good friends for many years and in the case of John and myself for 66 years when I moved to Langholm from Rowanburn and we ended up in the same class at school.

Tom and Ken bringing up the rear. Ken used to love bringing up the rear with Peter Bart-Smith who sadly died in April and they talked mostly politics so Tom is taking over Peter's roll.

These sheep were enjoying the shade

Ken and John, both retired pharmacists.

A lovely stretch of calm water

After the walk we visited a walled garden and orchard next to Melrose Abbey

Martin wanted to see the Apple trees

Still plenty of Apples on them. We enjoyed a lovely lunch after our walk and then took the Edinburgh contingent back to Tweedbank railway station for their 3.20pm train back home. A perfect day out in good company.

 

A Visit to Peniel Heugh and The Waterloo Monument

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I arranged to meet John and Ken from Edinburgh at Harestanes Visitor Centre near Ancrum at 10.30am and we arrived within a minute of each other. The walk was an almost 5 mile one to the top of Peniel Heugh, which is 237M high and on it sits the Waterloo Monument. The monument was built between 1817 and 1824 to commemorate the Battle of Waterloo. There is a projecting gallery at the top of the monument but the tower is not open to the public. The hill is the site of an iron age fort.

These trees appealed to me so I took a photo of them only to discover I had taken the same photo 8 years ago when we last visited.

Ken and John were good company. We missed Tom who was packing for his holiday to Barbados.

A wee pond on one of the many paths through the woods

The Waterloo Monument on the summit of Peniel Heugh

The locked gate stopping us from getting to the balcony

This is Ruberslaw in the distance and we have climbed that a couple of times.
 

A Busy Few Days

It's been 2 weeks since we returned from California and I think it must have rained every day. It took a week for us to get over our Jet Lag. Last weekend we had a visit from John who says it has been the longest time between visits to The Muckle Toon. Despite the bad weather we managed to get a walk on Saturday and Sunday. This is our Sunday morning walk from the Laverock Bird Hide to Perterburn and back, a distance of 5 miles and we avoided the rain. I have recently had this Recycled Seat placed at the bridge in lower Tarras. We met the couple from Rashiel Cottage as they walked their rescue pony along the road. She loves the seat and uses it to climb on the back of her Pony after its daily walk and then rides it back to the cottage.

The road from the Bird Hide down to the Tarras river with John and Tom.

This was Saturdays late afternoon walk along Gaskell's walk and looking down to the river Wauchope which is in full flood.

The Auld Stane Brig and at last a bit of blue sky

Sunday morning and the Rashiel seat.

Gaskell's Walk.

This is the rescue pony belonging to the couple who live in Rashiel Cottage. They say it had been badly treated and was in a terrible state when they got it 2 years ago. They have lived at Rashiel for 7 years and absolutely love it there.

Today we had a visit from Jackie from Carlisle. She worked for me for 22 years with Atlasair (UPS), Transglobal Air, Wilson Logistics, and finally at EMS Cargo (Carlisle) Ltd. That is such loyalty and such an excellent worker over good and some difficult times. 

Jackie has weathered the years much better than me. It was so lovely to see her again and we had some good laughs about the pleasant times we had working in Carlisle and Longtown.

 

Our 50th Wedding Anniversary (Early) and a Family Visit

The Graham Family on the day they departed back to California.

Making my Speech at the Wedding Anniversary Afternoon Tea in The Buccleuch Centre

Out for a walk with Gaye

Our 5 Grandchildren, Hannah, Eleanor, Leo, Thomas, and Elliot.

Eleanor, Thomas, and Elliot out playing Soccer on Thursday evening with local Club

Mother & Daughter

Brothers in Law

Our Best Man John making his speech.

The Graham and Weatherstone families together.

The MacDiarmid Memorial and a lovely walk to the Monument

49 years and 8 months married. We will have a very quiet function in August.

Father, Son and Daughter at the Monument

 

A Walk Round Potholm after Storm Arwen

It is now 12 days since we had Storm Arwen and life is beginning to get back to normal in Eskdale, although the B709 road from Langholm to Benpath is still officially closed. You can however get through if you take extreme care and it's perfectly OK for walkers. We were planning to go Keswick yesterday for a walk along the old railway line to Threlkeld as it has been reopened after the bad floods of a few years ago. This was postponed due to Storm Barra which delayed John's arrival in Langholm and it was forecast to be very wet in the Lake District. This is a photo of one of the many uprooted trees on the Langfauld but it was fortunate they did not block the road due to the wind coming out of the North East.

A view from the Langfauld across the Esk to the Potholm road

A line of many fallen trees along the Langfauld

John and Tom along the Langfauld

One of the trees covered in moss

This is the B709 road to Bentpath and although the fallen trees have been cleared there are still electricity cables and telephone lines to be cleared from the road plus a lot of debris from the storm.

Tom and John on one of the worst stretches of the road. We finished our walk with a trip through Langholm Rugby Club ground where more damage was evident and then had a lovely lunch at Whitshiels Cafe. A most enjoyable 7 mile walk.