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!
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