What Was The Green Door.

Recently I have been in the habit off wakening up at around 6am in the morning, instead of tossing and turning and trying to get back to sleep I have been getting up and doing some archive work and catching up on sleep later. At the moment I am working on some scrapbooks we were given by Liz Ewart that belonged to Matt Ewart. This is an interesting task which covers Common Ridings from 1901 until 1950, and can be viewed on Langholm Archives under Matt Ewart (scrapbooks) in the individual drop-down box.

Later in the morning I received a text from Tootlepedal asking if I would like to go down for coffee. Both Mr and Mrs Tootlepedal were in a cheerful mood when I arrived. Among other things, we discussed where we could go for a walk later in the day. I returned home feeling quite cheery and had some lunch of leftover homemade pizza while in the meantime Tootlepedal went up to the archive Centre to copy some heritage DVD's for the tourist information hub.

After lunch I picked up Tootlepedal and we headed down the Tarras Road and parked at the Green Door, or what was the green door.

We walked uo the path towards the old railway foot crossing....

....passing this tree that has always intrigued me with it's twisted growth

We're headed up towards the old railway line and took the path cuts to the left up a short steep incline and on up to the main path that passes Jenny Nobles. 

 There was an abundance of acorns.

We had a splendid view of The Middleholms....

....and were a source of interest to these sheep.

There was an abundance of colour and stunning views.

 We passed through Broomholm Sheils farm yard...

...and made our way back along the Tarras road, stopping of to admire the colours.

The wall along the road always has something interesting to photograph.

Arriving back at the car we headed to Skippers Bridge...

.....where there is some of the best views in Langholm and always a reminder as to why I love the place.

We spent some time watching fish breaking the surface...

....but couldn't catch a shot of any actually jumping, but it was a nice relaxing experience.

A Leisurley Walk

It looked like an other fine day was on the cards when I woke up this morning which encourage me to get up and appreciate another day of good weather that has descended upon us. After a cup of tea I drove down to the Co-op for some odds and ends. I took my pocket cam with the intentions of a quick stroll to the Skippers Bridge and back to the car park, this turned into a very enjoyable and leisurely walk up by the round house and back by Hallpath.

This crow was tucking in to a muffin I'd left out the previous evening

I see the dreaded Japanese knot weed is starting to raise its ugly head along the river bank.

Part of the old railway banking has recently been cleared of the lovely but invasive rhododendron. 

 Here you can see where the clearance stops, I presume it's adjoining property and perhaps the neighbors may follow suit at some point.

Many a travelers thirst'll have been slaked at this drinking well at the Skippers bridge

I paused to take a shot of the Skippers bridge in fear that someone may have missed it.

Nice to see the fresh growth on the trees

Matt has obviously passed this way in the past.....

....as has some sweethearts.

I continued along the old railway track....

......on up to the round house.

 I sat a while and admired the view across the town before heading home for a late breakfast.

A Pleasant Walk and a Kinky Night

Just a short relatively uninteresting blog today but as I'm back in a blogging mood I need to keep it going. we woke once again to some warm sunshine and after a leisurely morning catching up with some TV programmer I had a late lunch then headed off to go round the Murtholm via the Becks and Gaskell's Walk. 

A popular gateway for some local photographers me included

This lone daffodil was worthy of a shot as it gave some hope that the coming Spring was just around the corner.

The effort the tenants put into their small fields and constructions never ceases to amaze me

These boards were originally designed to cross over extremely muddy patches but for some reason they have dried up and re surfaced else where on the path

Continuing past Ha'Crofts I noticed the hedges were all neatly trimmed by modern methods. My father in law was a lakeland hill farmer and was very skilled at the old craft of hedge laying where when regrown in the next season they were impenetrable. I wonder what he would've thought of today's methods?

I paused to take couple of shots of the Auld Stane Brig....

.......from both sides before....

....going through Gaskell's Walk...

.....passing where the Becks burn meets the Wauchope....

.....on towards the Stubholm.....

.....where there was a lovely smell of wood smoke

I continued towards the Skippers Bridge....

....where I took the obligatory photo of the old distillery.

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Looking back at the skippers bridge it brought to mind the painting I've got hanging in my staircase...

....which was done by a local artist by the name of Davy "Fitba" Ferguson many years ago. Apparently he was quite a popular artist in his day and by local legend he would produce local scenes to gain money for refreshment. One story that was related to me was you could tell when he was under the influence when he painted the Skippers |Bridge, the river somehow appeared to run upstream.

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This painting was done by Fitba as a wedding present for my late wife's grandparents and is possible one of the few he did on canvas.

I continued on home and made myself some spaghetti and homemade sauce for tea before getting ready to go to the Buccleuch centre where the Kast off Kinks were playing. They are ex members of the original band and gave an excellent nights entertainment apart from the the first half where the sound wasn't quite right and the vocals were being drowned out by the instruments, but a quiet word in one the staffs ear put things right for the second half. The show was perhaps a little loud for Tootlepedal but I'm sure he would've enjoyed the nostalgic hits all the same.