My partner has taken the dug for a gels week in Northumbria, so while they contribute to the general mayhem (three dugs and equally nutty owners) I can induldge in a little more riding.
The stone is approximately 2M in height and stands on its loneome in the middle of a field just below the railway embankment 4k outside of Hawick in the Scottish Borders. Close by are what are probably burial cairns although I am unaware of any excavations.
Occasionally on a summer day we see sheep gathered to worship around it as we run along the old railway above.
The trailer has finally given up the ghost, so it was a hard packing & piling return from the local town after my morning ride. Needless to say, everyone else was asleep, although the dug woke up to remind me that I needed to provide coffee PDQ in the bedroom and then take him out (again!)
The River Tweed at Coldstream in the Scottish Borders, with Coldstream Bridge in the distance. At this point the river forms the border between Scotland, on the left as we look at it, and England on the right. More pics and info: https://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/coldstream/coldstream/index.html
We had an unexpected meeting in St Boswells this morning so took off afterwards along St Cuthbert’s way crossing the Tweed to climb up to the William Wallace statue and then back via Dryburgh Abbey. Pretty flat bar the first kilometre along the river and the 3k climb and return to the statue that overlooks the river.
12.5k and finished with coffee and a bun in the Main Street Trading bookshop (dug and meeting friendly).
A ban on disposable Vapes can not come fast enough
Special offers on disposable vapes at a local supermarket in the Borders yesterday
I can guarantee we will picking up the discarded boxes and batteries when running in the morning. Ban? Ooops no, I forget that a major Tory donor is deeply involved in the sale and dispensing of this toxic waste.
Independent bookshop @WedaleBooks in Stow, in the Scottish Borders looks well worth a stop when travelling up the A7 or the Tweed Valley Railway on a Friday, Saturday or Sunday (10am -4pm).
An insurer, Benefact Group, is running a charity draw which will benefit wildlife charities in the U.K. nominations for a charity are welcome - best to have the charity number to nominate.
They have supported wildlife charities in the past, and it won’t cost you anything.
And the first two from MSPs have come through the door. Of course neither of them mention the party they are affiliated with (bar colour of leaflet). No surprise. This seems to be a growing habit, although I suppose we should be grateful they are not trying to grab green credentials!
They don't appear to really achieve anything other than promise and certainly neither of them have answered #correspondence (#email and then #letter)
It's Lauder - so the ultimate culprits are probably not difficult to identify. Shooting for sport is obscene, and as has been reported elsewhere there are multiple instances of ‘game' (the name is a hint) bird corpses being dumped.
Meanwhile foxes torn apart in the name of control continues.
Scotland’s oldest continuously inhabited house, the wonderfully unchanged Traquair House in the Scottish Borders. Parts of it date back at least as far as 1107, when King Alexander I of Scotland signed a royal charter at Traquair. More pics and info: https://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/innerleithen/traquair/index.html