Wheeler ladies leave Phil at home

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Tina, Gemma and Lucy went to Hawick today.  First stop was the park. We met a very chatty volunteer at the walled garden.

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There has been a large input from the lottery fund, and lots of work is going on.  A new bandstand was dedicated last year.
The town itself was pleasant, too. We had lunch in a café and visited the textile museum, which was excellent.
Sainsbury’s and home to Phil.

Lilliesleaf Walk

The girls have gone to Hawick for the day, so once the morning drizzle had passed, I explored more of the local area. Whilst you can, in theory, walk almost anywhere in Scotland, there are still hedges and walls to consider, which can make planning a walk ‘interesting’. 

However, we’ve found some maps on the Web that show potential paths, so off I set… 

All went well until I got to a forest with “No Entry – Logging In Progress” signs. There was little evidence that anything was actually happening, but I found an alternative route. 

This lead to what was shown on the map as a walled track:

Not the most accessible track that I’ve seen! 

After a few more battles with hedges, I reached a lovely spot by the superbly named “Ale Water” river.

The route back was through the Riddle Estate, which at least had some decent tracks to walk on. 

Then back through a small piece of woodland on the farm, which has a little stream running through it. 

Selkirk Walk

We all went for a walk in the hills above Selkirk today. The weather forecast was for a dry day, with some sunshine and clouds. 

Some of the paths obviously hadn’t been used much, and were a bit of a damp struggle with long grass and bracken. 

As we climbed, the weather went downhill, and it got quite windy and drizzly for a while. 

We eventually reached Lindean Loch, which is a nature reserve. As is often the case, there wasn’t much nature to be observed, but a nice place anyway. 

Then we dropped down the other side of the hill into pleasant weather again. 

We then headed back to the car via a lovely area full of good paths, flowers and shrubs. 

The Walk Home

As the rain wasn’t due quite yet, I decided to walk back from Seahouses. It was mostly on footpaths, but some of them are obviously not used much! 

Still, I got back just in time, only slightly damp from a bit of drizzle. 

Seahouses

Rain is forecast for later today, so we got out early for a walk around Seahouses. A good mixture of fields, beaches rocks and cliffs, ending with a quick beer and fish’n’chips. 

Bamburgh Beach

After lunch, we visited the Grace Darling (RNLI) museum and associated church in the town, then wandered back to the beach to enjoy the sunshine.

I then walked part of  the St Cuthberts Way (long distance path) along the coast and back to the cottage. 

Bamburgh Castle

Another day, another castle… 

Bamburgh is a really impressive castle, both in location and structure. 

The state rooms were also interesting, though with a rather random collection of ornaments. 

Now time for a beer! 

Alnwick Gardens

We visited the Alnwick Gardens this afternoon. Rebuilt in 1997, parts of it lack in maturity, but are nevertheless impressive.

We also had a tour of the ‘Poison Garden’ – we knew most of the dangerous plant names, but it was interesting to see the plants themselves.