Christmas Mojito

MIlano the Christmas Elf

The next day he did his showjumping clinic with reindeer ears and jingle bells on all four legs!

Lit up lockdown walks!

Covid 19 Update

Scotland has had a tier system recently with restrictions depending on the rate of infection in that area, we are tier 2 in the Borders, the main impact for me being no non household visitors indoors (though there is an amnesty for five days over Christmas).  As time has gone on people have started to bend the rules a little, I don't believe there is the same sense of community and compliance that was seen during the first lockdown.  Today's big news has been the approval of the first of the vaccines for the UK, with the first vaccines scheduled to be administered in Scotland on the 8th of December.  A glimmer of hope that there may be some sort of normality in 2021.

It may be early...

It's November but the Christmas tunes are on, a bottle of Baileys has been sunk and the tree is up.  New baubles for this year are a present from Sonya, lots of gin and Sir Spidey (the first tree since his arrival and he is practically a Unicorn!)

The Three Brethren

We had a lovely sunny walk up to the The Three Brethren in Selkirk today.  The Three Brethren cairns mark the boundaries of the estates of Buccleuch, Yair and Selkirk Burgh at a height of 465m.  The first cairn was built by Alexander Pringle, Laird of Yair and Whytbank Tower in 1512. However, one cairn was considered to be insufficient and another two were built at a later date.  The hill is named as the Three Brethren on General Roy’s military maps from the mid 1700’s.  On the way back we saw a flag flying on the horizon so we deviated to Linglie Hill to investigate, there wasn't a breath of wind so I had to lightly energise the flag to get it to unfurl, it proved to be a NHS tribute.  The trig point at The Three Brethren had recently been painted red for Remembrance day but it was back to white today.

Spectacular Scotland!

We visited The Queens View and the Fortingall Yew, estimated to be around 5000 years old and probably the oldest tree in Britain.  Then we had a walk along to the Glen Ogle Viaduct and even saw the feral goats.  The falls of Dochart were looking spectacular with our first sighting of snow on the hills beyond and Aberfeldy seems to be rather rife with Beavers!  Starling murmuration nearer home too.