Electric Car, Mountain Climb, and Cathedral Ruins

We picked up our rental car in Galashiels this morning - an all electric Peugot 208 with only enough charge to go 52 miles! So we've spent some time today trying to find a charging station and schedule time for a 45 minute fill up. 

Needless to say Blue is additionally challenged with this car (which you can't hear running) plus left hand driving! The car is a 208 which seems magical to me!

After picking up the car we headed to Eildon Hills (pronounced "Eel Dun"), three mountains rising up from the surrounding farmland and considered religious,  magical, significant for reasons we cannot know in this modern age. The north hill has evidence of ancient residence. We hoped to hike all three; however,  after climbing one, this old couple was done. 

The views were astounding. 

Blue standing beside the two hills we didn't ascend.

The trail started at The Rhymer Stone which commemorates Thomas the Rhymer, considered a Scottish prophet visited by the faeries who gave him glimpses into the future. 

After changing our muddy boots we drove into Melrose to visit the remains of the cathedral there.  It is hard to photograph sites such as these as they are so grand, so decrepit, such profound examples of the fallacy that we can create anything permanent.

My favorite gravestone of the day was this skull and crossbones with a Jack o lantern head.

Who doesn't love a country that has the unicorn as the national animal?

Sitting on the loo in our hotel room in an old manor house, and the 2nd floor landing at the hotel. 

Traquair House at Innerleithen

Today broke blue and sunny as we left Berwick Upon Tweed and headed west into Scotland and the interior Borders. Our bus to Galashiels took us through beautiful farmland  and we passed a pig farm, the requisite sheep and lambs, and a potato packing plant stacked with familiar potato crates. 

The bus took us through small villages where the road was so narrow that, holding hands, we could touch houses on either side. In some cases, cars parked in one lane of the road as there were no sidewalks, the usual parking place, effectively making the two lane road a single lane for traffic. 

At Galashiels we changed buses and arrived at Innerleithen, our stop for the night. The good folks at the Traquair Arms Hotel (pronounced "tray kware") let us stow our packs, and we headed across the Tweed to Tarquair House and Wood. 

Traquair House is the longest continuously inhabited home in Scotland - and by the same family! Built in the 1100's as a tower hunting lodge it housed a parade of kings and royalty. Expanded and remodeled over the centuries, it gracefully escaped the typical Victorian facelift of furbelows and turrets and today is much how it was 150 years ago. 

We walked down the avenue of trees to the house from the Bear Gate, locked "until a Stuart" regains the throne. The temporary avenue had been in use for the last 300 years.

Mary Queen of Scots spent time here, with her husband Darnley, and her son, James I and VI. Her bed and James' cradle are on display. 

As the house went through remodels, painted ceilings and supports were discovered and displayed. The original tower staircases is quite the climb with the stair rise nearly 18" high. And there was a creepy doll room. 

A walled garden provided a few quiet moments amongst the espaliered apple trees. And a very cool horse sculpture tempts me to learn welding. 

And here is something I've never seen before: A row of kneeling cushions in the chapel featuring hand done needle point bare breasted fertility Goddesses. Pretty darned cool. 

Murder (?) At the Golden Square

Today started with shadows from the sun illuminating our hotel room - a nice departure from yesterday's rain - then the shadows became sinister when Blue stepped into a vast puddle of congealed blood at the bus stop on Golden Square. Then there was human hair. Then a general feeling of uneasiness. Then we missed the bus to Bamburgh Castle (pronouced Bamburra).

That was all by 10:30 am! After an hour back at the hotel to figure out what went wrong on missing our bus, helping Blue get his equilibrium back, and replanning the day, we started anew.

The next bus was sheduled to leave at 2:30 so we had time to hit the "art" museum at the Berwick Barracks (pronounced Bearik Beariks).  Most of the exhibition featured an eclectic mix of art collected by Burrell. In addition to the orginal Degas crayon sketch, the exhbit featured more of the Glasgow Boys, first introduced to us when we visited the Kelvingrove Museum in Glasgow several years ago.

We stopped in at the Tourist Center to hear a quirky rendition of Berwick Upon Tweed's history, plus enjoyed a cuppa and a scone and a chin wag with a group of volunteers. This helped erase some of the trauma from the morning! Then we caught the bus to Bamburgh Castle!

And what a glorious day! The sky was brilliant blue, the North Sea azure and white, the cricket green, well, green, and the sandstone pink. What a sight and a sight and another sight!

Bamburgh Castle is inhabitated and  HUGE. Built on an extinct volcano core, this was the first castle to fall due to the use of gunpowder ammunition. Since our day was cut short, we did not go INTO the castle, rather, we hiked around it and then out onto the miles and miles long white sand beach that visually identifies this castle. We could see the holy island of Lindisfarne to the north, and the Farne Islands to the south with the nearly full moon overhead.

Back to Berwick Upon Tweed with the morning's blood cleansed from the shoes and the soul, we enjoyed a bruchetta and beer and to bed.

Tomorrow we hope to head inland into the Border country. Cross fingers we don't miss the bus!

Bridges and Bastions at Berwick Upon Tweed

We tallied up the miles from yesterday - 5,183 or so from home to Berwick Upon Tweed in England. Berwick is pronounced Bear Wick, or more precisely bare-ick, with a sort of swallow on the "ick" at the end. It makes sense when you know that Ber mean grain/barley (bere) and wick represents a farm, which is a clue to it's agricltural beginnings.

This town is an old one and was well-established before the 12th century began. From 1290 to 1480 control of Berwick changed hands 13 times, finally winding up in England's possession. Queen Elizabeth 1 strengthened the walls to protect against further invasion or dispossesion, and we walked on those walls today.

The walls around the old city feature five bastions which are designed so that no land or sea approach is left unguarded. They appear something like arrow points that protrude from the walls and include cannon placements on the "neck" of the arrow as well as on the angled edges. These are huge earthworks and the photos cannot do them justice.

This is the Dewar's Lane Granary which leans more than the Tower of Pisa. It is now a youth hostel. You can see the buttress walls placed on the outside to keep it in place. We also saw the other side on our rambles; it, too, leans like this. I guess square doesn't really matter after all!

Thanks to a local gent who volunteered to be our photographer. We are on the wall atop one of the gates through which auto traffic can flow. The Town Hall / Creamery tower is seen behind us.

We started out this morning walking up river to the ruins of Berick Castle. All that remains is one gun tower and some of the famous White Wall that ran from the castle to the river. Most of the structure was torn down to build the Victorian-age train station and train viaduct / bridge. Some views.

Views of the three bridges over the River Tweed - Old Bridge c. 1611; Royal Tweed Bridge c. 1928; Royal Border Bridge (train) c. 1850. I love the reflections on the last photo; you can just see the train bridge on the far right in te background.

Some more views we encountered during our day out on the ancient walls and bastions.

North Sea with the Tweed River entering the ocean.

Garden allotments, a fierce "potted lion" who appears quite surprised, flowers on the wall of a close, the Loo-vre - a tiny B&B created from a former Victorian era public toilet, and sea serpents supporting the benches along the ramparts.

Miles 5,831; 27 hours of time from there to here.

All the Light - 2023

 

I started this project in September 2022 and finished it in February 2023. It was a fascinating project, full of twists and turns, new stitches and an engaging story line. I couldn't put it down! 

This is a Crochet Along from 2020 by Sheepjes called d'Histoire Naturelle. The pattern is based on the book All the Light We Cannot See by Idaho author Anthony Doerr. Much of the setting of the book is in Paris' natural history museum, and each part of the pattern focuses on a section of the museum starting at the center: Jardin des Plantes, Galerie d'Entomologie, Galerie de Botanique, Galerie de Mineralogie et Geologie, Grand Galerie de l'Evolution, and finally Galerie de Paleontologie.

In the photo the Jardin des Plantes starts in the middle of the circle and ends at the pink square garden walls. Full of plants, flowers and hedges, this section is full of life and blooms.

Next is the entomology department. Featuring bees and butterflies and plants to sustain them, this section was challenging to crochet. You can see the bees and butterflies in the next photo.

The final section shown is the Galerie de Botanique, a round greenhouse full of plants and leaves.

The four corners represent the Minerology and Geology department. Can you just imagine the dark gallery with agates, quartz, lapis lazuli, rhodochrosite, jade and geodes sparkling under the lights directed at them from above? The gems glow in their dark backgrounds, bordered by white diamonds.

The Galerie de l'Evolution features a parade of animals representing the march of evolution. In the museum this can be viewed from the arcades, galleries and walkways above the display. At the head of the march, or perhaps at the end of it, is the elephant, see here above the diamonds. Can you make out the balcony above the elephants as well, with its marble balustrades?

The last Gallery in the afghan features seashells, pearls, bones and skeletons.

This project was compelling. Unique to me, the idea of creating a crochet project based on a book's description of a place spurred me on to designing my own pattern for a Tree of Life mandala. I am sketching and planning; yarn is purchased; I am Googling how to write and record the pattern as it develops. 

Perhaps this endeavor, this project, revealed some of the light in me I cannot see, or have not seen, or have put under a basket for far too long.

The Borders 2023

Our annual pilgrimage to the UK is just 10 days away. The trip this year is very different from the past few - we are not visiting any islands, except for a plane change in Dublin, Ireland.

This trip focuses on The Borders - that area between Scotland and England which was fought over for five centuries as governments - monarchs, sheriffs, wardens - attempted to draw a line, drive a wedge, between and among clans and families, economies, religious choices. The Border remained fluid and wild and a place of reivers, mobsters, unruly denizens and unruled government officials. It was illegal to marry across The Border - wherever it lay in that decade, that century - to engage in commerce, to converse.

We will be visiting medieval cities, abbey ruins, castles, churches; weaving, textile and corn mills; rivers, viaducts, bridges, and hiking the Eildon Hills. Most of our trip is in Scotland; we will cross the current border into England and visit Bamburgh Castle, Berwick-Upon-Tweed and Flodden Field. Like last year, the rented car will carry us around the region, our trusty steed on this, another adventure. 

Our trip concludes with a couple of days in Edinburgh, wandering the Royal Mile, searching for the original walls of the original city, visiting history and art museums.