Ramblings in Edinburgh and the Borders

By the weekend I feel I’ve earned a brief sojourn away from the computer desk. First stop is Kelso, the Scottish Border town with ruins of an 11th century abbey beside a river where tourists pay filthy amounts of lucre to catch trout from oft replenished stocks. My interest is more personal – great nephews wee Erchie and not so wee Cammie playing their respective favourite sports, and their ma and pa who I haven’t seen in a while.

I also wanted to grab partings shots of Hardiesmill Farm cottages. Family owned for twenty years, they will soon pass into the hands of strangers. My own son Calum spent a few happy years of baby and toddlerhood here before we moved back to the city for work and a more active social life. The only small creature now in residence is Luna, the doe eyed hound who moves remarkably fast on her stumpy Bassett legs.

Edinburgh is just an hour’s drive back up a quiet road on an exceptionally beautiful sunny morning. The WWII invention of city allotments for residents with green fingers but no garden is productive at this time of year. Other green aspects of the city landscape are also easy to find – this one is Duddingston Loch, made famous by a painting of a black clad ice skater and home to a large avian population.

A near perfect day in this unusually warm and welcoming home-town of mine is rounded off with some live music of the highest class. What looks from the outside like a brand new Festival Theatre is instantly recognizable inside as the old Empire. Ghosts of Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and David Bowie dance across the stage until the lights go down, and someone else I’ve been a fan of since those heady 70s takes over – now with his son in tow.