My Favourite Photos of 2022

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.

Our First Wednesday Walk of 2023

For our first Wednesday Walk of 2023 Tom and I headed to Rowanburn and a walk along the old railway and then a loop to Rowanburnhead. This is one of my favourite trees on the lane above Rowanburnhead.

As we walked along the old railway line from Rowanburn I had a feeling we were being followed so looked round to see a flock of sheep following us. 

The lane above Rowanburnhead with my tree in the distance

 Tom trying to compete with Lang Sandy at Rowanburn. We had a nice 4 mile walk and ended up at The Buccleuch Centre afterwards for Coffee and Cake (Tom). My Achilles Tendonitis is much better and as long as I don't overdo it I can avoid it being painful. Hopefully it will eventually not be a problem but I do have to be careful at the moment. 

New Years Day Walk

My good friends have met for many years on New Years Day to join the runners for the New Years Day run. We of course just walk part of the route which up until today was round Potholm a distance of 5 miles. Today we decided that we would just do a 3 mile walk starting at 10.00am and finishing in the Market place at 11.00am and we timed it to perfection arriving just as the clock was chiming. Our excuse for the shorter walk is that 2 of the group and now Octogenarians and another 2 are recovering from various injuries. Its a fairly poor excuse but we are sticking to it. I was impressed with another octogenarian Tom Hutton who walked the full 8 mile route and arrived back at the same time as us. This is Tom Stothart with Wattie Borthwick at the end of the walk in the Market Place. Wattie of course ran the route and is to be much admired having had several operations on his hips or knees in the last few years and yet is still running. We used to play in the same Squash team together. 

The winning male runner James Taylor from Annan who did it in a time of 60 minutes and 12 seconds. He is being presented with his Bottle of Whisky by Mike Tinker who started this event in 1998.

The winning female runner Marie Marshall also from Annan who managed the same time as the winning male as they ran together. The whisky is presented by Charlie Graham who helped Mike run the event for many years.

Myself with David Stevenson, Wattie Borthwick, and Mikes son in law Lorne from Linlithgow

Mike with his daughter Elizabeth who has taken over the running of the event.

The group of walkers on the Duchess Bridge

 

Lunch With the Glovers

No walk for Tom and I today as we were visiting John and Marion Glover in Dumfries and we treated them to lunch in The Boathouse at Glencaple. It was a very enjoyable visit and good to catch up with old friends. The Glovers have 5 grandchildren now with 3 of them very young so life has been very hectic recently. We had a lovely lunch and were delighted to also see Hilary Jack in the Boathouse so had a catch up with her as well.  

 

A Walk at Rigg and Redkirk Point on the Solway

Looking over the Solway towards Gretna from Redkirk Point. This was our regular Wednesday walk from Rigg to the Peninsular at Redkirk Point.

Erosion on the bank where the Kirtle comes into the Solway

The 2 walkers looking across the Solway

A Holly Tree sitting beside a Beech Tree

The tide was on its way out.

Looking over the Solway to Cumbria

Looking along the coast to Dornock

Most of our walk was on farm tracks like this. The tree is very windswept.

The route of our walk

A very muddy walk

They say that Gorse is in bloom in Scotland every month of the year.

The worst part of the walk and at times it was very difficult to get through it.

An ominous black cloud over the Solway

A very enjoyable 5 mile walk, despite the muddy bits. We finished up with a nice Fish and Chips lunch at the Old Toll Bar Cafe in Gretna. The 2 girls working there were very busy and understaffed but did an excellent job.

 

A Penton Walk

Tom and I decided that yesterdays Wednesday Walk should only be on road rather than plodding along Lanes or Fields in the mud. We selected a 4 mile circular route at Penton and Nicholforest. This is on the last section of the walk and is called Railway Cottages next to the old Waverley railway line. It is dated N.B.R. 1889.

A view from the road looking toward the Liddell valley

We stated our walk at a Bus Shelter near Crossroads just off the B6318 past the Pentonbridge Inn and a feature of the first half mile was the number of Crab Apple trees in full fruit at the left hand side of the road. We counted a least a dozen and most of the trees had lost their leaves but the Apples remained. 

Nicholforest Parish Church and we had our morning Coffee in the porch of the Church

More Crab Apples

Nicholforest Public Hall and a fine building it is. 

Near a caravan site on the first road section this fellow came to see who we were.

Enjoying a Coffee in the porch of Nicholforest Church

Another of the Alpacas next to the road.

Crab Apples galore

Plenty of long straight sections of road lined with Beech Hedges

Tom views one of the lovely Beech Hedges

Pentonbridge Inn which was not open for lunches but certainly worth a visit another time.

Another view of the lovely Nicholforest Church. We had hoped to dine at Pentonbridge Inn for lunch but they were closed and then the Cafe in Newcastleton was full so we ended up at The Buccleuch Centre and had a lovely lunch served very quickly.

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.