Month: July 2022

It’s time to start partying in Thornhill, Scotland as my wife has left me. We’ll, not really. Beth has departed to fly back to Wisconsin to prepare for her mother’s 80th birthday party. I dropped her off this morning in Dumfries where she hopped on the X74 Stagecoach bus to Central Glasgow where she transferred to an Airport Express Bus to a hotel right on the airport grounds. Tomorrow, Beth has an early morning flight to Chicago (via Dublin). In three days I’ll have the exact same journey on Aer Lingus. Beth will likely blog again after her mother’s birthday (July 23).

Maybe a few pics as we are winding down our 106th house sit:

We’ll, it is if you associate love with marriage, which I hope you do! Bob and I took advantage of the house cleaner coming today to take a trip out of town. We headed for the famous blacksmith shop in Greta Green, almost right at the border of Scotland and England, but still in Scotland.

Why a blacksmith shop for an excursion? It turns out that this blacksmith shop is famous for performing weddings, especially during the time when marriages in England were restricted. The elopements to Greta Green (mostly from England but other places as well) started in 1754 with the Marriage Act, which made marriages only legally binding if performed by a minister in a church and only if both parties were 21 or older (unless they had their parent’s permission). But this Act did not apply in Scotland, so many couples fled to Scotland to marry. Since Greta Green is just over the border and the blacksmith shop was the first trades shop that they’d encounter (and any tradesman could perform a marriage in Scotland), the Greta Green blacksmith shop became (and remains) famous for performing weddings over the anvil. In fact, we saw the start of a wedding when we visited today.

In 1856, the Cooling Off Act was passed which required that one party getting married in Scotland had to prove residency in Scotland for at least 3 weeks prior to marriage. This led to a drop off in the ability for “instant” marriages, although some couples found accommodation so that they could still marry.

In 1885, the property on which the blacksmith shop lies was purchased by Hugh Mackie, along with the adjoining farm. This property has remained within the family since that time. Mr. Mackie’s grandson-in-law and his family have created the shop and the adjoining property into the experience that it is today. Basically, the museum, a couple of gift shops, a food hall, a convenience store, a restaurant, a Love wall, and a maze.

On the way back to Thornhill, we stopped off at the Annandale Distillery, which we had visited on our first trip to Scotland. At that time, we did the tour, and they were just reopening the old distillery. They couldn’t sell whisky yet, as it has to age for 3 years and 1 day to be called Scottish whisky. They are now selling 6 types of whisky, but we just stopped for a quick bite in their cute coffee shop.

We’ve been having a relatively quiet house sit in Scotland but still getting out and about and reading the newspapers here, which we love. However, if we do nothing else during the day, there are a few things that we need to do.

One is to walk Otter three times a day. This is not a hardship, as he is a very happy boy when it is time for a walk. Normally, Bob does the morning walk about 6ish, while I make Otter’s 1st meal, which is given at the end of the walk, and then do the morning garden routine (more later).

I typically do the afternoon walk about 3ish, while Bob makes the 2nd meal, to be given at the end of the walk. The meal’s aren’t time consuming, mostly raw meat with some add-ins, so it’s just a bit of measuring and mixing. As easy as the meal prep is however, it takes us longer to mix up, than it does for Otter to eat it. 😀 Finally, there is a pretty quick, pre-bed walk.

Today, we changed things up a bit, and both did the second walk with Otter. We walked up a quiet (at least car traffic wise) country road toward Kirkdale and then turned and headed down another road to the lovely’ local Trigony Country House. We didn’t get all the way there, as we passed one couple with a dog and then saw another couple coming with 2 dogs off lead. We decided it was best to turn around and finish with a walk through the woods that we normally do.

As I briefly mentioned, the other thing that we do here is tend to the garden, but not really the garden but the various bird feeders that are situated throughout the front, side, and back garden. This just entails ensuring the various bird feeders haver either birdseed, chopped peanuts, full peanuts, or bird feed balls. All of that attracts a lovely array of birds, including a woodpecker that we’ve enjoyed watching. In the evening we set out food for the resident hedge hog, who we’ve been able to see on video. They are helpful to gardens by eating slugs.

There are, of course, beautiful flowers in the garden as well.

While Bob and I have been busy with our everyday stuff (dog care, garden tending, trip planning, etc.), the little town of Thornhill (pop. 1,600) has been having its annual (I think) Gala Week. They have kept any associated noise to a minimum, as we have heard nothing while out and about. However, today was Gala Day, so we thought we should see what was on offer.

There were a number of activities listed for today (including a fancy dress and float competition), but we were most interested in the ride out and the Gala parade. Sadly, we don’t know the history/import of the ride out, but it is done on horse back, and a neighbor lady told us that there were 51 horses involved this year. The ride out started at 9 this am and ended about 11:45 when it hooked up with the other parts of the parade.

Just off of the main road through town is the Thornhill Community Center where a lot of the week’s activities had taken place. We walked through the center grounds briefly before checking out the parade.

With sun and a high of 72, Thornhill had a great day for their gala!

On our first full day in Thornhill together, Bob and I decided to walk an old walking route that we would do with Bruce (prior Border Terrier who we had sat for here) and then stop in town to poke through some shops. The house has a side gate that opens up into a wooded area with paths. We started through the woods until the path curved and empties onto a road. It’s a fairly busy road, but it has a wide berm, and we aren’t on it long before we turn off onto a quieter, country lane.

We walked to the end of the lane where it curves to the right, but we instead turn left and follow a long gravel road past a cottage and then onto a path through the Thornhill golf course.

We walked all the way through the golf course until we hit a main road that takes you either back into town or out of town. We turned left and headed back towards town. Before getting to the main shopping district, we stopped into the cemetery.

Even on an overcast day, this area is lovely!

Once in the town center, we ended up stopping into the Boots pharmacy, two gift stores, a bakery, and the two small groceries. We didn’t shop at all of them, but we got reacquainted with what everyone has and did pick up a couple of items for our dinner tonight.

Last night, the news was awhirl with talk about Boris Johnson possibly having to resign, as two of his cabinet members resigned as a sign of no confidence in his leadership. We’ll see, as he seems to have weathered a number of other scandals already.

Well now, where were we? It has been a few days.

We left the Gladstone Library about midday on Saturday via taxi to the Shotton (Wales) train station. There we began another three train journey— this time to Scotland to meet up with our friends, Stan and Mary, for a third house sit for them. Our Transport for Wales train from Shotton was headed to the Manchester Airport, but we were getting off at Warrington Bank Quay (England) for an hour layover before heading onto Carlisle (England) and then Dumfries (Scotland).

We didn’t have set seats on the approximately 45 minute trip to Warrington, so initially Bob and I were across the aisle from each other, but after the first stop some people got off and Bob was able to move next to me and put his backpack overhead to have a bit more room.

We got off in Warrington, located the platform for our train to Carlisle, and then went into the rest area to have a lunch snack that we had with us. It was only after Bob had bought us a water and we had our snack that he realized his backpack was still on the train to Manchester.

OMG! The backpack not only had his passport, our iPad (on which I do our blogs), the important papers we need to have with us, the adapter plug to allow us to plug into UK outlets and our phone chargers, and his only coat. Not a happy travel moment.

He tried calling the Transport for Wales company to report the issue. No luck. 15 minutes before our next train, he finally found a very nice young woman from Avanti (train company for our next two trains) who got the particulars about the backpack, called the Manchester airport station, and got someone to say that they would check the train for the backpack when it arrived. We had to catch our next train and we’re told to call back at 1:30 and she would let us know whether it had been located.

He called, and they had recovered the backpack!! Huge sigh. They were putting it back on a train to Warrington, and they would confirm when it had arrived. Long story short, by 3:30 it was back in Warrington. After a solo train journey for Bob today back to Warrington, we have been happily reunited with everything and are very appreciative of the good Avanti train staff who made this happen.

In the meantime, we have had a lovely time catching up with Stan and Mary, hearing about the lovely family get together they are heading off to in Canada, going through all the home, garden, and pet care instructions, and enjoying their cooking and generous hospitality. It isn’t often that a place feels familiar when we arrive, but their home does since we’ve been here before.

On Sunday, they took us out to lunch at The Boathouse on the River Nith near where it empties into the Solway Firth and across which you can see England. The restaurant and the views were lovely.

But the best part of our visit was meeting Otter, their new Border Terrior rescue, who they received in September.

Much more on Otter and our stay in Thornhill to come.