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.