The last couple of days have been all about walking, swimming, playing, walking. Basically having a whole lof of fun.
Walking here in Scotland sure is different then walking at home and no, I am not talking about walking on the wrong side of the track as I tend not to care about that. I am talking about there beging water everywhere. I don’t think I have ever been in the water that many times a day as these past couple of days. My play mate didn’t seem to mind either.
I must admit I was the one leading her astray. At times I did not ‘hear’ my mum telling me off. The call of the water was just too big.
One morning we went out for a morning/lunch walk to a place in the Scottish border were they often have ospreys roaming the skies. And would you believe it! Just as we started our walk our eyes spotted one, even two. It wasn’t until we walked back and started talking to some other people that we learned that the couple had some chicks high up in their nest. If you are interested in their progress, like my mum, you should check out the Border Osprey site. After the walk we had some lunch in the cafe where we could see the chicks on a webcam.
To get back to the walk, we walked next to (and I swam and played into) the Teviot river which is a tributary of the famous Tweed river. Ezweni and I had so much fun and I do believe so did our humans. They were chatting away, posing for pictures with us. Quite nice a morning indeed.
After our most delicious brunch we drove back to the house to put on some proper walking shoes and picked up a rain jacket just in case, we set of for another lovely walk. I am telling you, there is no shortage of gorgeous walks around here! This time we went on a bit of a longer one near St. Boswells. The scenery was varying a lot, walking in green pastures, along riverbeds, into the forest we went. Even had to do some climbing (this time around my mum did not fall down to kiss some nettles 😉
The combination of old, historic towns, castles/ruins and nature definitely please my mum. I am still not to fond for roads with cars though. But ones out in the fields or forest.. oh my!
At the end of this walk we stopped by a pub where Scotsmen in kilts were standing outside. And were making a lot of noice inside. We sat outside in the garden as the sun was still out. Of course mum had to try some cider. They didn’t have a local one but she had a very good (so she says) New Zealand one.
By the time we got home Andy had prepared a very nice vegetarian stew. It was very quiet during their dinner-time.
On our last day with Andy & Neil we went on a short morning walk where, as usual, I got to jump into the water. This time around mum had put my harness on when lo and behold I had jumped into the river, again, but could not make my way out again as it was way to steep. Mum came to my rescue and dragged me out of it. Will I have learned.. probably not!
After a quick lunch it was time to pack the car again and say goodbye to two lovely people, and their furry kids. This visit, ones again, came about after some Covid-years of zoom meetings.
Thank you Andy & Neil for you hospitality. Until next time!