Around and about

One day during last week, Morag and I took ourselves off to Dawyck Gardens, not too far from Peebles, for lunch at the brand new visitor centre and then for a walk around the garden.  It’s more of an arboreal garden than anything,with trees and shrubs from all over the world.   So many shades of green, so many mixtures of colours, bark patterns, leaf shapes……. Out came the camera; I switched it on, and What’s this?  A message came up saying Memory Full!  Not memory card full,  just memory full!  Suddenly in a light bulb moment I had a vision of my memory card still in the slot in my laptop from the last time I uploaded photos to it! ……….    Happily, Morag had her camera so I was able to snap a few pictures that I would transfer later to a memory stick.

After our walk - to the highest and furthest point of the garden, where we sat for a while enjoying the peace and quiet of birdsong and the merest touch of the wind on the trees, then along grassy paths kept trim by Grass cutters Anonymous, through avenues of  trees, beside the little burn, over bridges, past rushing waterfalls,  stopping to look at the little church, fenced off from  marauding visitors these days…… we came back to the visitor centre for a welcome cup of tea before heading home again.

 

On Saturday, the local annual Agricultural Show was held in the Hay Lodge park, a beautiful parkland of grass and trees,which is a joy to walk in – normally.  The marquees had gone up during the week, when the weather was pretty good, but on Friday it started raining.  It rained and rained all that day, through the night and into Saturday morning, so with moving all the tractors, trailers, horseboxes, cattle trucks, ice-cream and burger stalls, etc. on to the site,  not to mention the activity of decanting animals into pens, and then the public walking around and animals being shown in the ring…. the park will never be the same again. 

By the end of Saturday afternoon there were ruts in the ground, about a foot deep, and everywhere else was just mud mud and more mud.  Most folk sensibly had welly boots on and I realised my Crocs weren’t the best things to have on my feet.  Squelch, squelch, squelch!  so, eventually I took them off!

It was a good Show though – not that I know a great deal about farming – and I got some pictures of prize winning beasts,

 

 

some being quite temperamental,

 

 

poultry,

 

 

 

 

 

sheep  (There are a few pairs of handlebars in this photo! Click the pic and you’ll see what I mean!)

as well as handicraft stuff in the Womens’ Rural Institute competitions…

Hardanger embroidery

 

 

 

 

jams and chutneys,

 

bread and cakes,

 

 

 

baby dolls,

 

 

 

 

shephers’ crooks - though these were not in the Rural tent -

and fleeces,

 

 

Click to enlarge this photo and see the tiny curls in the wool

 

 

 

This fellow had accompanied his owner to the crafts stalls and was watching intently – ooh ‘scuse the pun - everyone who came in.

 

 

There were food stalls

 

 

 

 

 

flower arrangements in unusual containers

 

 

 

 

 

flocks of chooks, of which this is only one

 

 

 

and of course no show is complete without its band – silver in Peebles -

 

 

 

 

or its beer tent!

 

There was a dance in one of the marquees at night and seemingly there was much jollification – and probably more than a few hangovers on Sunday morning!

Talk again soon.