Northumbria to Scotland

I'm having problems with the internet again. Finding a spot that will let me access my blog (or anything) with my dongle is hard. (That sounds really bad). I am on blogspot (obviously) but can't seem to upload any images. Yesterday I uploaded a whole lot (which takes ages) but now they've disappeared. Google keeps coming up in French, as though it still thinks we are there? but we are in Scotland (and it's bloody freezing!!!)
Currently we are in Oxton just out of Lauder, about 20 miles or so south of Edinburgh. We drove up here today from Jedburgh, the wind has been amazing, still is infact, the campervan is rocking like crazy, I'm hoping we don't end up on our sides over night.
This morning in Jedburgh (we stayed there overnight in a parking lot next to the Abbey),

A cold heron with hunched shoulders

We did make ourselves go to see Mary Queen of Scots Visitors Centre, but the cold was distracting and I was keen to get back to the van.

Canon balls at Mary Queen of Scots Visitor Centre

A board showing the characters in the life of Mary Queen of Scots

A death mask of MQS after her head was severed by an axeman executioner

The house where she stayed in Jedburgh, and where the visitor centre is.

it was also freezing, with pelting rain. Even the locals were horrified by the temperature and the winteriness. I tell you, no way did it reach double digits, and at times it would have been pushing it to make any digits on the positive side of the ledger. We had been going to do a city walk, look around the historic sites, and I was keen to look around the Abbey. Yesterday when we arrived it was sunny, and we had falsely thought maybe the weather would be better here than in Yorkshire, Cumbria and Northumbria, where we had pretty much non-stop rain. Last night it started bucketting down, and all morning the same.  About midday we headed north, stopped at a crafty/farmy/visitor centre just north of Jedburgh, looked at the displays about bumble bees and a few other things before travelling on to first the Wallace Monument

View looking down on the Tweed Valley from the Wallace Monument. Wallace was the dude who defeated ?? the English was it? at the Battle of Stirling.

Just to show how big the statue is

The wind was fierce!!!


and then Scott's viewpoint. This is the viewing point from which Sir Wlater Scott the authour looked down into the Tweed Valley for his favourite view. Legend/story has it that during his funeral procession which passed this point on the way to his burial site (Dryburgh Abbey-which I'll show you later) his horse stopped here, because that is what his master always did. Nice story eh? He wouldn't have amnaged to pause there the day we were there, as the photo of the copper beech shows it was a little breezy!! We actually watched a rain sciff come up the vallet from this viewing platform, a grey fast moving wall.

We drove on north to Dryburgh Abbey where we spent an hour or so being buffeted and rained on, but admiring the scenery. They had choral music playing in one of the "rooms"- really effective.

Bits of the Abbey.Walter Scott is buried in this part.



We continued on until we reached our current stopping point, as I have intimated, weather appalling!!!!

Our last two days in England were spent quietly in partial rain on our second to last day, and pouring rain as we left.
We had a day just hanging out at the campsite, Hilary and Di did school work, computer work in the morning while I went for a walk in the woods, then Hilary and I played in the river making a dam until my fingers froze. In the late afternoon we all went for a walk in the woods before Hilary and I played in the river again until chased inside by the rain.

Poem on a seat overlooking the river on the woods walk

The next day we headed to Scotland. We stopped at a World in Miniature, these are some of the examples of what we saw, with a normal sized pen held up on the outside of the cases to give some idea of size. Amazing!!!

Close ups of the miniature cushions Hilary is looking at in the picture above.

 From here we stopped for groceries in Carlisle before crossing the border to Scotland, stopping at a Celtic goldsmith/Silversmith jewellery gallery. He was a little passionate should we say about Scottish history and particularly swords/armour and silverwork. His and his son, daughter and daughter-in-law certainly made stunning jewellery however.

We stopped at Jedburgh for the night,which is where I began this.

I'll write about today later, we are in Edinburgh, but Hilary and I have been waiting at this McDonalds for Diana for an hour and a half, so we'd better go and find her?? Don't know how?? It's quite a big city!!!