Our own history and even further back.
I’d been reading a blog post by one of the girls from Salsa. She is one of the ones Shannon used to call her “Expert Girls”. Now that may conjure up entirely the wrong picture. Anyway, she was writing about Craignethan Castle in South Lanarkshire. When I was at school, nobody called it Craignethan, everybody called it Tillietudlem because it was said to be the inspiration for the castle of that name in Sir Walter Scott’s novel Old Mortality. Back in the early ’80s we lived near the castle and used to walk along the line of the old railway for a day out at Tillietudlem. I think that must have stuck in my mind, because neither of us wanted to get stuck in a traffic jam trying to get to the coast today, but we agreed it would be good to be out somewhere. I suggested Craignethan as that ‘somewhere’, and it was settled, that’s where we went.
I’d forgotten quite how far out in the sticks it was. Netherburn was the back of beyond, but Tillietudlem was beyond that again. The sun came out for us when we got there and we spent a good hour or two remembering simpler days when a walk to the castle was a great experience for all the family. We drove back through Netherburn, but hardly recognised any of it at all. Stopped for a roll and a cup of coffee at the antique centre at Garrion Bridge, then home.
The sun had disappeared by the time we got home, but it was still warm, so I went out for a walk over St Mo’s and got today’s PoD of a damselfly. As usual, all is not as it seems. It’s a bit of a Frankenstein damselfly. I had one good shot of its head and most of it’s body apart from the tail, and another with less of the head, but all of the tail. It’s a simple thing to join the two in Photoshop, so that’s what I did. More photos of the day in Flickr (again, if Flickr is playing nice).
After a bit of an argument about how to make a quiche, we finally collaborated and made two. We’ve eaten one and the other will do lunch tomorrow. Pudding today was Orange jelly with our own stewed rhubarb in it. Quite, quite delicious.
Didn’t manage to get a seat in the garden in the sun today, but did get one at Tillietudlem, watching and listening to the swallows flying round the castle. It was a good day.
Tomorrow Scamp’s getting her hair cut and maybe I’ll go in to Glasgow and get my number 3 all over, just to tidy myself up a bit. Rain is predicted 🙁