June 2023

29th

Bit pissed at having a £180 council tax bill land on my doorstep this morning; never mind, I'll pay it all off tomorrow. The flock at the grass keep were horrid today, only retained five lambs and one ewe; the fly spray leaked all over my right arm whilst I prepped the pump action squirt gun whilst Charlie was worming them. I sprayed a blue line down each of the sheep's back, and a dot on the head, then a squirt between their legs. It's incredible how sheep shun this help against fly strike; they'll be much healthier as a result of the process we attempted to put them through today, can't rationalise with animals though eh.

28th

Galashiels disturbed me, to think I liked this town when I first came here; now it just zones me out, but there was shopping to do. First, we visited Halford's to purchase a small bottle of pink OAT coolant for our 4x4. Charlie bemused commented at a lady's leopard skin attire, Bet Linch I thought, a cheap trick bar tart, cheap and nasty appearance. Leaving Halford's she clambered into a two door Freelander 1, smirking she drove away, the car rear window a quarter wound down, a common but simple to fix calibration fault with this particular model. A visit next door we found Sports Direct to be overwhelmingly confusing, so many items, scattered in so many places. Alas, we found a pair of walking shoes, I haven't owned a pair of she's for three months, instead choosing to walk about everywhere in crocs, yet who am I, to talk about fashion if it were not for a painful foot problem; but leopard print is just so.. how do I put it? ahh.. unforgivable.

My mind was boiling so Charlie took me to the Hanning to cool off.

Via returning to Borthwick water we visited the Hanning, Selkirk; and found the wee loch to be bonnie, serene. Previously I had visited this location last year in the colder month of October; though on this occasion the manor house was cordoned off and covered in scaffolding. Charlie told me the guy who owned this estate kept many cats; that when he died he left the estate to the people of Selkirk, whom thus came and helped themselves to the statues, so now only a dozen remain.

27th

Have a terrible headache, sheep are shunning sopping rain, but the kitchen garden is enamoured with vibrancy. The hillside is drenched, the contrast between green and brown has increased to draw the pale whiteness of roses reaching from the farmhouse's north-western corner. The fungicide I sprayed appears to have rid the rose bush of rust. Relieved that we had found and eradicated the garish orange coloured mould early enough to allow the bush to bloom this summer; it's such a compliment to the ascetic of the farmhouse.

Our potatoes!

Dwarf beans!

In the afternoon we purchased four bags of Ewe nuts, and visited both grass keep; one flock was visibly stressed with flies; we'll be straying and worming them soon. Yesterday, Charlie completed the perimeter fence by attaching a gate; he used a piece of paper to position and tack the wire on with staples. Our dwarf beans are growing significantly, I am optimistic that these will be delicious and nutritious. In the evening I encrouaged Charlie to bring the flock into the polytunnel, the rain has been a relentless downpour today.

26th

Charlie fixed the gate onto the kitchen garden today, this completes the perimeter fence.

I've been waiting a while for this job to be done, if he had not done so today I'd of done it myself.

25th

Charlie woke me but 6am on a Sunday morning in much too early to be drinking coffee. I strimmed the paddock roadside walling, that wasn't in reach of the topper yesterday. At 2pm we attended the 100th anniversary of Fordham Hall in Roberton, a stone throw away from where we live in the Borthwick valley. I always nag Charlie to attend these functions, because we live here, we exist, existing with others has meaning, so we go, nonetheless to show our faces and support the hall. There was a talk by an elderly man, who I presumed was related to Mr and Mrs Forman, who built the hall in June 1923.

There was a talk by one of the Andersons about another memorial, that he claimed boasts the best view of Borthwick water, although I'd have to disagree. To reassure myself, we visited the memorial, and found that our view of Borthwick water was the best. We were greeted with a friendly smile and seated; a few minutes had passed when we were offered a plate of cream cakes and a choice of tea or coffee. Animosity was mild, perhaps I felt over self-conscious, so much colourful summer dresses, yet I was cloaked in a solemn black. The Cherry tree they planted in commemoration is beautiful. Charlie purchase three strips of raffle tickets, but no prizes did we win.

The hill road to Roberton: Ale Water at our feet,
And grey hills and blue hills that melt away and meet,
With cotton-flowers that wave to us and lone whaups that call,
And over all the Border mist – the soft mist over all.

When Scotland married England long, long ago,
The winds spun a wedding-veil of moonlight and snow,
A veil of filmy silver that sun and rain had kissed,
And she left it to the Border in a soft grey mist.

And now the dreary distance doth wear it like a bride,
Out beyond the Langhope Burn and over Essenside,
By Borthwick Wa’s and Redfordgreen and on to wild Buccleuch
And up the Ettrick Water, till it fades into the blue.

The winding road to Roberton is little marked of wheels,
And lonely past Blawearie runs the track to Borthwickshiels,
Whitslade is slumbering undisturbed and down in Harden Glen
The tall trees murmur in their dreams of Wat’s mosstrooping men.

A distant glint of silver, that is Ale’s last goodbye,
Then Greatmoor and Windburgh against a purple sky,
The long line of the Carter, Teviotdale flung wide,
And a slight stir in the heather – a wind from the English side.

The hill road to Roberton’s a steep road to climb,
But where your foot has crushed it you can smell the scented thyme,
And if your heart’s a Border heart, look down to Harden Glen,
And hear the blue hills ringing with the restless hoofs again.

The rain poured down as we left the hall; many folk complained about the rain, along the short distance to their cars. I parted feeling apprehensive of optimism, but Charlie was reinvigorated, this helped me take leave from social apathy; knowing he enjoyed this event is to know he gained something that I had somehow missed.

24th

Today the garden was strimmed in just under an hour; our once muddy driveway have now become touched by a pleasant verdant green. Creative visualisation is therapeutic, but only if the mind can be protected from outside influences.

Charlie connected and placed fence wire, posts, sledgehammer, staples and then me onto the topper, and drove the tractor up the steep incline of the farmhouse paddock. Looking back it is always breathtaking, how lucky I am to have lived here in peace, within the Borthwick valley. The steaks hammered into the ground quite easily, considering there is solid bedrock, in areas protruding to the surface. The wire mess was heavy and tort, as I rolled a one-hundred yard length along the side of the hill.

Before letting out the naughty absconding lambs from their detention pen and into the newly fenced paddock; we had to give them numbered ear tags. The piercing doesn't seem to hurt them, a mild discomfort in contrast to how much the other observing lambs feared this necessity was irrational. They have to wear these ear identification tags by law, and it is illegal to remove them without the owner's consent. These numbers will be logged into a sheppards book and added to a movement book when transported to market.

To finish off a productive day we wound down by taking a drive through the Craik Forest; we almost reached the outdoor centre before turning back towards Roberton.

21st

Not been posting, been flat out with terrible flu. This morning dragged myself out of my sweat pit and travelled to "Twelve Apostles" Stone Circle between Holywood and Newbridge, near Dumfries, Scotland. I don't celebrate Summer Solstice other than acknowledge the event, because winter solstice is when the true resurrection of the sun / life ignites.

The stone circle was reputed to be the largest in Scotland. We parked in a small lay by north, from an information plaque walked five hundred yards though a grass field into the centre of the circle. We arrive five hours after sunrise, other than deflated blue and gold balloons tied to a gate post there were no other indication of people having been here.

We then drove to East hill stone circle, at the foot of the hill we drove into a farmyard, but I was physically to weak to do this walk; Charlie turned the car around, and we drove towards the seaside via Drumburn Viewpoint. We visited Southerness, Charlie dropped me off at a lighthouse before he departed to fetch two ice creams / bottles of fizzy pop.

It is so awesome to be a part of somebodies life, that acknowledges me as existing; that cares about me, appreciates the things I do and have done. A person to hold, to rest with and feel safe; a humanity that was and still is spitefully alienated from me, decades chased down and demonised hapless by enablers.

We travelled west to Rockcliffe, parked the car and walked some distance across the mud flats. On the beach a tattooed woman waited as if she were trapped by anxiety, her dog reminded me of a friend I lived with in Bath, decades ago. The shoreline was covered in crushed shells, Charlie remarked how sharp they felt upon his feet.

We drove to Castle Douglas, past a park, down a high street, before reversing direction to return us to Hawick. Leaving Castle Douglas the sky broke and rain poured down; Apple Maps directed us through the centre of Dumfries before we arrived in Lockerbie. At Langholm, a shouting driver blocked our right of way, he pulled over because we refused to reverse. Arriving at the farmhouse we found our replacement used console delivered, that was purchased from Ebay only a few days ago. The existing console in the Freelander had been hacked and wired up wrong, presumably by the previous owner attempting to fit another car stereo. Retired to bed, lay, sweated and slept for an entire twelve hours.