Meet the Neighbours

June 11th 2015

Meet the Neighbours

I didn't think we had any neighbours living where we do, as on each side of us is a field which up intil now has been empty.  However, on one side we now do have neighbours - cows! 

The next two photos were taken a few days ago on the first evening they were in the field.  Most of them are Holsteins but there is one Jersey among them.  They are all young and they're certainly curious about us!

 I like them all but I think she's lovely!

Every morning at about 8 am, someone from the farm comes and gives them some food - Grannymac thinks it will be supplements of some kind but she's not sure.  They come running along the edge of the field to get to the troughs so, whatever it is, they want to get there fast!  Sometimes if they get there first, a few of them make a loud moo-ing noise but usually they are very quiet.

They seem to enjoy lying down together near the gate - maybe just to be ready if someone comes along with something tasty.

The field is much more interesting with these neighbours in it!

Lockerbie Wildlife Trust Coffee Morning

June 6th 2015

Lockerbie Wildlife Trust Coffee Morning

For several years now Grannymac and Sally have had a fund-raising table at the LWT coffee mornings in May/June and November.  She says it is always good fun and helps to raise some money for the Eskrigg Nature Reserve where the red squirrels are a great attraction.

The first photo is of Liz as she puts some flowers on the tables.  I'm waving to say Hello to everyone.  Liz has a tombola table next to ours.

The next two are before the Coffee Morning started with Sally and Jim who is the Manager at Eskrigg.  I'm going to pick a Lucky Dip ticket out of the Malteser tub.

Later on I went to say Hello to Frances - I hadn't seen her since we were searching for a name for me.

The next thing I did was to put some money in the collecting tin for Eskrigg.

At the end of the morning, when we had taken all the stuff back to the cars, I had a look at the sheep which are a feature of Lockerbie High Street.  I think they are great and I know Grannymac likes them  One of them let me sit by its ear.

The last thing we did this morning was very, very special.  There is a stained glass memorial window in Lockerbie Town Hall which shows the flags of all the nations of the people who died in the Lockerbie Air Disaster - no dates, no names, no numbers, only flags.  In this way the artist achieved very effectively what was required - a memorial, not a reminder.  Grannymac had wanted to see this window for a long time but had never been in the Town Hall at a suitable time.  However, this morning, the caretaker very kindly offered to take us up to the room to see it.  It is an amazing window.

Quintinshill

May 23rd 2015

QUINTINSHILL

May 22nd 2015 was the 100th anniversary of the railway disaster at Quintinshill, Gretna, in 1915, Britain's worst ever railway disaster.  Because of mistakes made by two signalmen, three trains collided, a local train, an express and a troop train carrying hundreds of soldiers of the Royal Scots  from Leith to board a ship in Liverpool which would take them to Gallipoli.  214 soldiers and 13 other passengers and railwaymen were killed.  The horrific scene was made even worse when gas cylinders on the troop train caught fire and exploded. 

A service was held and wreaths were laid at the memorial cairn.  The white wreath was laid by Princess Anne and also among the wreaths was one in memory of a 16 year old bugler.

There was an exhibition at the nearby hall which had a lot of interesting detailed exhibits, including a collage made by a group of ladies and a collage made by local school children.

We then went to see the scene of the accident at the bridge.  The grey patch on the left in the second photograph is where the signalbox used to be.

I go everywhere with Grannymac but don't always have my photograph taken - this was one of the times and places where it wouldn't have been appropriate.  Quintinshill remembered.

Back to Kirkcudbright

May 20th 2015

Back to Kirkcudbright     

Another lovely day and we're off to Kirkcudbright again.  This time I went with Grannymac and her very good friend, Sally.  We did the same as before to start with, a look at the harbour, a bit of shopping and a bite to eat.  Then Grannymac took some photographs of the colourful houses in Kirkcudbright, so have a look around with us.

The building at the end of this street is the Tolbooth which has a very striking weathervane.  Grannymac has a huge collection of weathervane photographs so she had to include this one.

Grannymac wanted to go back to the garden at Broughton House for a short while to see the difference a month had made since our earlier visit.  Maybe I'll be able to do a bit more climbing!  I didn't know at that point what kind of adventure I was going to have!  The first encounter we had was with the Broughton House cat, Tizzy.  There used to be another very friendly cat called Oscar, who had only one eye - Grannymac and Sally met him on an earlier visit a few years ago.  While he was there, Tizzy used to keep out of the way, but now that Oscar has gone, Tizzy has come out of her shell and likes to greet visitors.  She looks quite friendly and harmless, doesn't she?

We'll see!  In the meantime here are a few of the beautiful flowers we saw, including a magnolia which gave me my first chance to climb this afternoon.

THEN, I was just sitting quietly, watching Grannymac taking photos, when this happened.

I was so surprised that I lost my balance and fell over!  I know she only wanted to play, (at least I think that was what she was planning), but she gave me such a fright.

By the time I got myself up again and sat down to get my breathe back, I had to tell her I didn't really want to play.  Maybe another time, as long as she doesn't give me such a fright first.

When Grannymac picked me up, Tizzy went away in a huff and we moved on to look at some more beautiful flowers, including one of Grayymac's favourites, auriculas.

There was a lot of apple blossom on the apple trees - I was able to have a good close look when I climbed up.

The ladies at the NTS house are always very friendly and Grannymac had a little chat with them before leaving.  They asked if she would send them some of her photographs, especially those with me and Tizzy, for them to use on their website.  On the way out, Grannymac noticed an interesting letterbox which she had missed on all of her previous visits, maybe because the door had usually been open before.

Before we left Kirkcudbright, we stopped at a small nursery which specialises in growing many different varieties of violas.  The smell of some of them was lovely.

There was a walled garden which was being worked on, a bit too early in the season to be at its best but interesting to see all the same.  There was the biggest pot/planter I have ever seen - you can judge its size when you see me sitting in it.  A few other photos show some of the other interesting things we saw.

THEN, would you belive it, along came another CAT - I kept well out of the way this time, just in case!  We don't know this one's name, but he/she was very friendly with Sally and, I must admit, he/she is very handsome.

To finish our day out, we then travelled about 10 miles further along the road to another pleasant little town called Gatehouse-of-Fleet, which really deserves a day out to itself, especially as we found a great eating place!  Our main purpose here today was to visit the bluebell woods at Carstramon, before the flowers were over for this year.  Grannymac had been twice before a long time ago, but she found it difficult to find the exact paths which had been so exceptional.  However, it was getting to be late in the day and we were tired, so we didn't explore too much - Grannymac took a few photos even though they were not what she had really hoped for.

It had clouded over by this time and we had a long way to go to get home.  It had been a most enjoyable day out even though I won't ever forget that cat, Tizzy.

What next?