Day 3

Came home from work last night to find the French doors in!  They look great!  That room is going to make a lovely living room! Up till now it has been my bedroom, and access to the balcony has been from the room next door  - the living room as it was built to be - to the side of the balcony.  Seemed a shame to have what just looked like a cupboard door in the living room.  “Emphasise, don’t improvise!” my friend Vina always used to say and this is one big “emphasise”.  I have to say the balcony looks so much bigger now! 

  So today Ash, Jack and Gregor are back and finishing off this room – this is Ash’s best side, he said as he spotted me with the camera!  I see him as a bit of an Eric Bogle lookalike!  Eric’s the one who wrote the song No man’s land (Green fields of France/ Willie McBride) and The Band played Waltzing Matilda, two of his best known songs.  This is Eric…..

 

 

 

 

and fitting a glass door where the old solid door used to go out to the balcony! 

 

 

 

Even the front door is being fixed right now even as I speak, er, write!  White on the inside and black outside and with a nice chrome letterbox - information for those who have teased me about the uncovered hole in the door I have had for a few years!

This morning I had to go up to the health centre for a retinopathy test, so walked along the riverside to see how the river was doing further up, as it’s risen quite considerably overnight.  There must have been some rain, and I mean SOME rain - further up Tweeddale for there to be so much water flowing down past here. This photo was taken before I went out and the water has  now risen half a  “brick”  higher on the pier of the bridge!  It has a way to go before it floods at our bit but just along a bit it had already burst its banks when I went that way.

Here, the cauld, or weir, is really going some!

 

 

 

 

I think the heron is hoping for some pickings from the swollen river

(I must give you a poem about the heron – sometime I think, as I’ve got another picture or two of him that I can show you).

The water is close to flooding here in the afternoon.

 

 

 

and this is my favourite beech tree whose branches dip towards the water.  Today they are trailing in the water.

 

 

 

On the way back I found the water a little bit higher still, and here is the arch of Tweed Bridge that usually only gets the extreme edge waters trickling through it!!

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It’s into the evening now and I have just been out for a short walk to look at the river and also my balcony with its new doors.  It was too dim for photos but the doors look fantastic, pretty much as I envisaged them!! 

The water has definitely risen another brick or soon the pier of the bridge, and is right at the top of the river bed outside, slightly lapping over the edge in places.  The trees in the last photo now have their feet in the water.  What made me smile was the sight of around 20 ducks coming waddling along the riverbank all together in a group.  They all stopped together as if assessing the state of the water and waddled on again.  Next stop seemed to be more to their liking so they all paddled into the river for a free ride with the current.  Breaks on!  Let’s not go too far!  and soon they were back on dry land again, to waddle a bit further.  They seem to have changed their minds about swimming because now they are all lined up side by side along the edge of the water dipping their beaks among the submerged grasses for whatever goodies a duck can find in there!

So, tomorrow is a day off for the guys so they won’t be here till Monday to do the finishing off.  Not a lot to do now, but there are one or two little snags - and one big one actually - that have to be attended to as well.  Meanwhile I suppose I can sort out stuff, but I think I might just wait till the guys have gone.  No point in dusting twice – and there’s lots of it each day!

One last look at the river before I finish off here!  It’s dark outside now but I should be able to make out the edge of the water….. yes, it’s out over the bank now, not much but my downstairs neighbour probably won’t sleep too well tonight!

Talk again soon.