Visited Wicker Man country today. Stopping off first in Dumfries for a cup of tea and a scone, and a quick visit to buy Stephen Fry's second volume of his autobiography. On the way, we stopped at Wigtown, Scotland's national book town. Unfortunately we arrived at closing time and did not get a chance to browse. The weather was against us, the first time we have encountered bad weather. We found a car park and walked the mile to St Ninian's Cave, a location us...

Went for a walk in the woods today, or rather 2 walks after setting off then realising the walk we thought we were on was in the other direction. The walk we intended to go on was into the woods with a hide where, hopefully, you could sit and watch red squirrels. On this day, however, it was the squirrels who were hiding but the sun was shining and the birds were singing and the walk was lovely. Craik Forest is located west of Hawick, about halfway between Hawic...

Crossed the border today and ended up in Rothbury (it wasn't until later that we remembered that this peaceful village was the location of the climax of the Raoul Moat manhunt a few months ago). It was purely by chance we ended up here, a few missed turnings and a look out for a place to eat lunch. It is a lovely village and hopefully it will not be tarnished with the recent events. The weather started off cloudy but the sun broke through for another lovely Septe...

Local day today, a visit to a clothes store and then onto Melrose for a walk towards the river and the chain bridge. Afterwards we went to Scott's View ~ a favourite spot of Sir Walter's, so much so that when the funeral procession passed this point on the way to Dryburgh Abbey, the horses stopped out of habit and if you look at the pictures, you'll know why.

Today we visited St Abb's Head Nature Reserve. Even before we got there, we had some excitement ~ we overtook a red arrow!!! (Ok ~ it was being carried along on the back of a truck). It actually stayed dry all day although a mist was lurking about. We arrived at lunchtime and had some lovely food in the café at the location. Afterwards we decided to walk. The walk took longer than expected as we were greeted to so many spectacular views. Most of the seabirds had...