July 03, Hawick to Selkirk

 Finally it rained; it did not pour, but you had to suit up anyway.  One of the challenges is figuring out what to wear under your raincoat.  If you aren't insulated and become cold, you are in a bad way because while it is raining you can't take everything off to add a layer (or two).  I went with a wind shirt under the raincoat.  After several hours, this was too much, so take off poncho, take off waist pack, take off back pack, take off raincoat, take off wind shirt.  The gaiters and rain pants stay on.  Then, put on rain coat, put on waist pack, put on back pack, put on poncho.  By about noon, the rain stopped...for the day.

Most of the walk was kind of a slog.  Granted, nothing looks as good in the rain as it does in sunlight, but the scenery was partly moors and partly vast farm tracts, and lots of roads in between.

Topless trees!

¡Qué raro!  (How odd!)

I am trying to think of a descriptive for this!

There are always sheep!

When you are walking for quite some time and it feels brown and grey, it is truly exciting to see a patch of purple, which is, apparently, rosebay willow herb—I did that thing with the camera on Google to find out what this flower is, having seen quite a bit of it up to now:

Here it is up close:

It really brightens even the greyest day.

More sheep

Part of the route went through a golf course.  Walking on a golf course is the BEST!  Hard surface, short grass, very very nice!

And, on a rainy day at 8:00 a.m., you do not have to worry about flying golf balls, or if you do, I didn't.

Just as nice, is walking through a pine forest:

Not so nice is walking for long stretches on asphalt:

The stage was about 14 miles, and when I reached Selkirk, I realized that my hotel was a mile away!  (There is really only one place to stay in the town itself, and there must have been a reason why I did not book it.)  I was given early check-in for the princely fee of £15, but not until 1:00.  Since I arrived too early—I had really pushed hard—I walked to the grocery at the far end of town to pick up some supplies, which, normally I don't like to do; I prefer to change to sneakers and exchange the pack for a small backpack, but I wanted to make sure I could get a decent loaf of bread!  Get there at 3:00 and likely you are out of luck.  

The room at the hotel is quite nice, and, I was told, I have a garden view:

I was really excited when the guy told me there was a frig in the room.  The frig can hold exactly two bottles of water. That punctured my balloon.  I was pretty much done for the day, but it was only 2:00 when I had "gotten sorted," and I really had wanted to see the Sir Walter Scott Courtroom, so I schlepped the mile there and saw it.  It was a room with placards and the depiction of a hearing:

You can see Sir Walter presiding:

I had not known that he was a judge, but he was, for thirty years, and it was a job that paid the bills, but of course, he loved to write.  Scott 's poetry and novels were very popular in Europe, especially. Not a great fan was Charles Dickens.  He felt that Scott's glorification of war in Marmion, e.g., was influential in the South's wanting to go to war (as in the Civil War).  Now that is something to ponder.  A lot of this exhibit echoed the stories told at Abbotsford—see post from Melrose—which is just ten miles, or so, from here. 

One interesting "fact:" Some of the people who passed through Sir Walter 's court room became models for characters in his novels.

Scott is not the only famous citizen with ties to Selkirk.  

Right near the bridge:

Wee, sleekit, cowran, tim'rous beastie, O, what a panic's in thy breastie! 

But those lines were written in Ayershire, in 1875, not in Selkirk, so no plaque for that poem here!

Juy 02, Hawick (Hoyk)

When I headed out this morning on a circular walk, I had low expectations because Hawick is such a cheerless town, but surprisingly, the walk was excellent.  Hills, and fields, and, well, just splendid countryside.  It was quiet.  It was very quiet.  Even the scenery was quiet.

For the first while, my doubts were justified because there was lots of tall grass: to push through:

and I thought, nobody walks here!  What am I doing?  But a path did appear, and although there were certainly a few difficulties, most was fairly straight forward.

Here I was not sure if I was on the correct side of the wall:

It turned out that I was.

Can you see how quiet it was?

There were vast areas where you did not see even a cow or a sheep

But then, off in the distance there were cows (on the left)  AND sheep (on the right)

Even these birds (everything that is black is a bird) attacking the grain did not caw!  At least not at the moment.  They were too busy looting!

After coming down from the hills, I met a horse with way too long bangs:

And had to scale a gate:

If I do say so myself, I am quite good at scaling gates of various kinds.

In the afternoon I went to the park where there was a guy singing and lots of people enjoying the performance and the unusually fine weather:

How much the dogs enjoyed it is not so clear:

I thought this was a likeness of Robert Burns.  It wasn't.  It is James Thomson, who wrote, inter alia, "Rule, Britania" (but that was in the 18th C)!

.  

Aug 01, Jedburgh to Hawick

Let me just start by saying that the place where I am staying, a very nice place for the most part, feeds off the wi-fi from the restaurant next door, so you can only get a sort of signal in the dining room.  That is just cheap!  No doubt the owner has a separate connection.  And once we are on the topic, the shower is a mere dribble and the toilet is totally weird, some sort of organic kind of toilet that makes a real racket when you flush it.  But after you mount thee huge flights of stairs, you are in a nice room.  Oh, and the proprietress would not let me check in a minute before 3:00 p.m.  even though "early check-in" was confirmed when I made the reservation, so for an hour and a half, I hung out in the next-door-restaurant where they let me connect to their wi-fi, so I was all set with the zany password when I got here.  

I headed out at 5:15 in preparation of a long day with the detour and that whole river business to worry about. I was so focused on that that I don't even remember a lot about the walk.  It was not exceptional.  What can I say?  There was the large area of ferns that were taller than I am and which were wet, so I got pretty soaked after about 5 minutes.

And there was much very tall grass, also wet:

 

Do you walk beside the field or through the field?

Beside the field.

After the very tall wet ferns and the tall wet grass, there were some less tall ferns, and since they were on the other side of the big hill, they, for whatever reason, were not wet.

I think that hill is a landmark, and no, it was not part of the route, but you do see it for a long time!:

Two walking surfaces merit attention.

One of my favorites:

Because I know that without it, the ground would be very very very boggy.

One I never experienced before:

It was fabric!  Pieces of cotton.  Millions and millions and millions of pieces of cotton. It was soft underfoot and so strange.

I met two pretty horses:

The critical point on the route, five and a half miles or so from Hawick, was Denholm: 

This is where the detour is and where the river path begins, or at least where it used to before the embankment eroded away causing the rather unpleasant detour.  As I got close to the bridge, I saw a woman who was in charge of a gas pump—a gas station with one pump and nothing else—so I asked her if she might give me some help.  She was most obliging.  We went over the detour and I asked her about the river path.  "It is gorgeous," she said.  "Near Hawick, is it precipitous?"  I asked.  "No!" I walk it all the time!  Hearing her say that, I wanted to sing!  Bob Marley will do it for me!

I asked this nice lady, whose name is Wendy, whether, per chance, she sold Magnums, you know, this being a gas station of sorts and all.  No, she did not.  "Before I head off, I am going to take off my jacket," I told her.  At this, she ran off and returned a minute later with a Magnum, for which she refused to accept payment.  

I thanked her profusely, not only for giving me an ice cream from her personal supply but for her advice about the river walk.  That segment turned out to be the best part of the day.

Be wary of what random people post!  As for the barbed wire that this person had to cross lest she fall in and drown:  anywhere where there was barbed wire, you could easily crawl under the wire below the barbed wire, but there was no need to escape a severe drop because there weren't any. 

A willow tree: 

The River Teviot, which is a lot like the River Tweed:

Bunches of birds going bonkers;

Hawick is not an attractive town.  In fact, it is rather depressing.  The only walking route that passes through is the Borders Abbeys Way, as opposed to some of the other stops where at least one other LDP (Long Distance Path) is on the route  In other words there is no catering to tourists here!  No cute little ice cream of chocolate shops with cutesy names.  But there is no derth of class B- supermarkets!

July 31, Jedburgh and Bairnkine Farm

It's always something!  Last night I decided to Google: Are there any difficulties on the BAW between Jedburgh and Hawick(pronounced, get this, HOYK)?  I knew there was a diversion, and that I ha figured out, but to my surprise, the answer YES came up and this person described a precipitous river walking stretch wherein she had to climb over a barbed wire fence to avoid a bad fall (I assume into the river) and other people echoed this experience.  I can do barbed wire, but I prefer not to.  This began a long interaction with Chat GPT and Komoot, and all kinds of stuff that made me get a late start this morning, but I was kind of trying to kill time because the walk to Bairnkine  Farm was maybe three hours and the tour of the farm did not start until 10:30, but I got utzy and had to get going.  

It was a pretty nice walk for the most part.  The first wooded path was lovely.  The second wooded path had huge sections of torn up earth as if they were in the process of making a path but hadn't quite gotten to it yet, 

Had there been a lot of rain recently, this would have been just awful.

Also, there was an area where a lot of huge trees were down thus obscuring whatever faint path there was.  Being lost in a forest is about as bad as being lost on the moors.

At one problematic spot, where I did wander about for some time and almost gave up, I took a photo of this sawed off tree so that on my way back, I would remember that there had been a problem finding the path there.  It turned out to be helpful!!

Then, I happened to notice on the map (should that read app?) that not too far from the destination, the road was closed and the bridge was out.  Oy!  So I thought, OK, I will walk that far and then should that be the case I will contact the tour lady, tell her I couldn't make it,  and just turn around having had a nice out and back walk.  

There was a not very convincing barrier across the path leading to the road where the bridge was. or was not:

And there were planks that were a sort of bridge, so, very gingerly, and testing with my poles to make sure the wood wasn't rotten, I proceeded, and made it safely across.

I happily met these guys

I did not know what I would do at the farm for more than an hour while I waited for the tour, so I sent an e-mail asking if there were walks one could take through the grounds.  It turned out that I was the only person signed up for a tour today, so Lucy and I headed out 15 minutes after I arrived.  ¡Qué suerete!

This farm raises cattle and sheep.  The sheep they have are self shedding sheep  Who knew there was such a thing!  

A few random facts:  Red clover is more nutritious than white clover.  

The silage is chemically tested every year so that the planting can be adjusted to make the balance of the various grasses and cereals and stuff of maximal value.  

The rams are allowed in with the ewes for a very limited time in the fall, otherwise the lambing season would be too long.

Farmers need to get licenses for almost everything they do, it seems.  There is a lot of regulation.

Ferrets and foxes are the biggest danger to new-born lambs.

If I think of more I will add to the list.

The tour, by car, with some forays on foot into fields, lasted about 1 1/2 hours.

Quiet countryside and yes, it did rain, but not a lot.

Lunch, of bread, butter, and homemade (as in my home) granola  taken en route:

After getting back to Jedburgh, and changing to sneakers, I headed out to the other big site in town:  The Queen Mary House.

My God, what a cast of horrible people!  Such intrigue, murders and plots.  Just a few highlights here.

My most favorite item of all was this French enamel thimble case (enlarged for better viewing) which, it is said, was accidentally left behind by Mary, when on her ride to Hermitage Castle, the royal party stopped to allow a repair to her dress.

I wonder if she missed it very much.  She is reputed to have been very skilled in needlework.

A portrait of Mary, who, BTW was very tall.  

She had three husbands, the third may have been involved in a plot to kill the second.  She had one son, James 1 or James V, depending on the country.  He became king at 13 months, but then again, Mary became queen at six days old.

He is the James of the King James translation of the Hebrew Scriptures

If you care to read a transcription of the letter that Mary wrote on the eve of her execution, click here

This is Mary's death mask, hand painted!

That is so gross.

Jedburgh is famous for pears  It all started with Mary who, legend has it, planted a pear tree in 1566, which tree survived for over 350 years.  After it blew down in a storm, a replacement tree was formally gifted and replanted on the grounds in 1934

Pear trees make me think of a production of Titus Andronicus wherein Lavinia, having had her arms cut off (her tongue, too, I think) was fitted with  tree branches for arms, which branches reminded me of pear trees....not the prettiest in any arboretum.

Pears from the pear tree:

July 29 and 30 Kelso and Jedburgh

The account of yesterday's doings somehow got deleted, WHICH IS VERY ANNOYING, so let me see if I have enough brain cells to give a recap of yesterday's events.  In the morning, I did a circular walk, the first few miles of which were the same as the start of today's Kelso-Jedburgh stage.  Those miles were just beautiful, along the River Tweed.

First, Kelso Abbey.  All these abbeys are ruins, so their most interesting aspect is what remains of the architecture:

Of course, if you are totally into ruins, you can pay a fee and go in to see more.

Perfectly camouflaged bird on the River Tweed:

I don't know if no tree is an island, but this one looks like one:

Not the same bird as the one above, no, an entirely different bird who was walking with some difficulty in the river.  What do we learn from this?  1) The bird may have a problem, 2) The river is very shallow right there

A quiet stretch of the Tweed:

Flowers along the bank:

More flowers and a mildly threatening grey sky:

There were happy yellow flowers, too:

A little bridge:

Thank God I did not have to pass through his field:

Maybe he has his eye on her:

Or one of her friends:

They will all have what to eat come winter!

When you pass an aqueduct (why is that not spelled aquaduct?) you take a picture of it:

You just do.

At this point, we go to the other doings of yesterday.  The walk back to Kelso was on a disused railway track.  Normally those are super dull, but this one was pleasant, shaded, and had a good, firmly packed dirt surface.

We know who lives here!

 John, having a junction named after you is so special!!

After the walk, it was time to visit the big attraction on the outskirts of the town, Floors Castle  where you are not allowed to take any photos AT ALL.  So if, after reading the blurb, you are interested, just hunt up some photos on line.  As one approaches the castle—which is really just a ginormous house, one is met by ginormous gates with gold on them.  You buy your ticket and then proceed to walk a mile to the castle, unless of course, you are driving, in which you can park fairly close.  

The people who work at the castle, refer, with reverence, to the owners as "their graces," which sounds a bit bizarre, but when you are a duke, I suppose you are graced, or however that works.  Anyway, in addition to rooms with lots of furniture, rugs, precious dinnerware, all that you would expect, there is one room with glass cases filled to overflowing with taxidermied birds and another room with cases filled with taxidermied fish...is that even possible?  Apparently, it is!  That is so gross.  Anyway, there was a ginormous salmon mounted on the wall; it weighed 59 1/2 pounds.

If you want to see a great house, the place to go is Blenheim, outside of Oxford, where Churchill was born.  It is really well curated and lots of fun to visit.

Back to Floors.  There were gardens.  To get to the gardens from the main house, you almost need a map.  The main garden was a walled garden that had many beds of flowers, and honestly, they really needed the services of a gardener.  There was a very nice playground, though.

We are now going to look at flowers in the blue and purple range that are being visited by bees:

Sea holly:

Blue globe thistle:

Teasel:

Tall teasel plant:

Thistle:

And from today, Field Scabious:

As I was leaving the grounds of the graces, I noticed this ad:

Due to the delay is posting, Alex hardly has time to get there!  But if you really hustle, Alex, maybe you can make it.

Back at the B and B, I inquired of the owner about this statue sitting on the landing.  It has an Assyrian vibe, if you know what I mean, and if you don't, just take my word for it.

It is, however, a replica of the king from the Lewis Chessmen which "features iconic  12th century Scandinavian artifacts discovered on the Isle of Lewis in 1831, characterized by expressive human faces carved from walrus ivory and whale teeth." I still think it has an Assyrian vibe!

After the first part of the walk today—and, BTW, I was perfectly happy that it was a repeat of yesterday's walk—the gorgeousness was pretty much over.  But wait!  I almost forgot!  Whom did I meet again, none other than El Señor Toro:

¡Adios, señor!

There were long stretches like this:

And long stretches like this:

And, despite the perfectly gorgeous weather, threats that it won't last:

There were still sheep:

And cows

But, if I am not mistaken, barley has given way to wheat

And I could be mistaken on both the barley and wheat front!  But whatever each is, these fields were different from the ones I have seen up to now.

The B and B in Jedburgh has a 4:00 p.m. check-in time.  I asked if I could check in early, (I always ask if I can check in early.) "If your room is ready,"  "If the room is not ready, but my suitcase has arrived, may I have access to the suitcase?"  "Certainly!"  So I tracked the suitcase.  When I was close to Jedburgh, but the case not so close, I sat on a bench, in the sun, by the River Teviot, ate an apple and some raisin bread and butter, and worked on the Spelling Bee.  You know what?  It is really nice to sit down on a bench in the sun after you have been walking for about six hours!  After a while I continued walking into town, checked the tracker again and noted that the suitcase arrived. Yeay!  The B and B people let me go to my room—it was maybe 1:00, and that was super nice.  

After "getting sorted" I went to visit the Jedburgh Castle Jail and Museum.  Maybe because I was hungry or maybe because there were a bunch of screaming kids or maybe because there were a lot of names and dates, information that just makes me dizzy, but now that I am lost in this sentence, I have to say that I did not get a ton out of this visit.  

First, there was a contradiction.  At the beginning of the tour, there was a poster explaining that conditions were purposefully harsh for first time prisoners, the reason being that this would deter them from committing further crimes, such as stealing turnips, that argument being that the owner of a turnip is entitled to as much protection as the owner of an elephant.  (That is something to think about.)  Then, at the end, there was a poster that said they made the treatment as lenient as possible.  BTW, people were not incarcerated for long periods, sometimes it was just for a few days, but of course it could be weeks or months, depending on when there could be a trial.  

On arrival, prisoners were given a bath and a haircut.  They wore their own clothes.  Before 1840, each cell had a bed and a bucket. the bedding consisted of a straw mattress, pillow, and two blankets, but if you were very bad, you had only a wooden bed:

Very bad man:

(I do not know what changed after 1840.)

The bed clothes were changed twice a year, the straw, not so often.

Prisoners were not allowed to talk to each other or cause any disturbance.

A sample diet:  oatmeal for breakfast, broth and potatoes for lunch, oatmeal and potatoes for dinner. (From this you could get scurvy.)

One prison regulation:  "Every prisoner shall yield a ready and cheerful obedience to the rules of the prison."  (You did get a bath and a haircut, after all.)

If you were serving more than a month, you got to have daily exercise, but you were not allowed to see or talk to any other prisoner.

A female prisoner sharing her lunch with a rat.  (That is a rat on her plate.)

I cannot believe I do not have a photo of mortsafe—something I had never heard of.  What it is is a heavy metal grating put over the coffin of the executed person to deter would-be body snatchers. 

Those are a few takeaways from the jail.  

Jedburgh is a town of one longish street, except about half way down, there is another street that intersects.  The point?  I do not have to use Google Maps no matter where I want to go, which is to the grocery store and the fruit store!