Having survived another archery evening, where I assembled the bow and added a sight which gave me such improved accuracy I managed to hit the wrong target with one shot – the danger however was far more in my driving where on an unfamiliar road I went steaming across a crossroad without realising it was there missing another vehicle with seconds to spare. Accidents are always caused by people not driving fast enough – if they were driving faster then they would not be in the position where the accident happened, and fortunately on this occasion they were driving a few seconds faster thus missing a possible accident. Spent the Friday evening unti dark watching through my telescope an abseiling forestry worker trim an osprey’s nest and ring the chicks who would be leaving soon on their long journeys of learning how to catch salmon and the mother vertically landing onto the trimmed nest – amazing. Much easier using a telescope for terrestrial viewing – at least trees do not move rapidly due to the earth’s rotation – stars and planets whirling in an endless dance around the skies and out of the telescope’s gaze.
Early morning gutbusting on Saturday morn, to ease tired limbs from archery and kayaking, led us slumped drinking coffee, to find out that one of us busters of guts had gone on a white water rafting adventure for her 50th birthday and ended up with a broken cheekbone and lost a tooth – Nae Limits indeed – we were wondering what the weekend would bring us. It started with being given our certificate and badges for walking the St Cuthberts Way, followed by trailing around Lidl for breakfast delights to go with our tiny eggs (first eggs laid by new chickens) and wondering who had flattened the plastic road sign when we remembered it was obviously the Common Riding day in Kelso and the ride to Yetholm which we could get stuck behind on the way home. We romped back home to see the riders in a traffic jam of their own making caused by slow horses in the lead and a coloured gal looking fed up on a white charger plodding up the Lempitlaw hill (she turned out to be appropriately a Colour Busser).
Kim had decided to go wandering up Windy Gyle so I joined her armed with my iphone, a pair of headphones and ‘To Your Scattered Bodies Go’ the first of the Riverworld series of books by Philip Jose Farmer – so tromped up from Cocklawfoot listening to Sir Richard Burton having sexual congress with Alice in Wonderland to reach the summit of a well named Windy Gyle dressed in my ‘I am not a Werewolf’ Tshirt and shorts and feeling the wind. The summit was mobbed with Newcastle walkers all on their mobiles telling their absent families about their achievements and talking loudly about geocaching as we sat sheltering from the wind and munching our brie sarnies.
With the descent we left the wind and met clouds of insects sheltering from the breezes and descended passing a forest which had been entirely cut down apart from the odd straggling tree which confused Kim’s navigation for a short time.
As a reward it was to the Border Hotel at Kirk Yetholm and a refreshing pint of the bizarrely named ‘Zig Zag to the Onion Bag’ as Kim explored the children’s Wendy house and took the fountain to bits working out how it operated…
We chose to miss the East Fortune airshow due to its cost and lack of Red Arrows and headed southward with Stephanies’ parents to the free Sunderland airshow joining a long traffic queue on the outskirts of Sunderland, which with a combination of iphone and google maps rerouted us around side roads to reach the free parking at the Metro near the Stadium of Light. This was followed by a brisk walk through council estates and rather nice terraced houses and a pet groomer called Millionhairs, to see an enormous woman directing traffic outside a shop called ‘Chubbies’
The vista of the sea front is an amazing place for an airshow, with a royal navy vessel anchored out and passing yachts, RIBs, cargo ships and a passenger ferry all giving something to watch inbetween the aircraft displays – not counting the Sunderland populace with a ‘Fat or Pregnant’ quiz and remarkable hairstyles. We munched our way through a Hog Roast roll and a Mr Whippy icecream, watched youngsters assembling and pointing rifles as a huge recruitment campaign was taking place, read the Northumberland Cross inscription from the Venerable Bede’s Ecclesiastical History of the English Race, and suffered screeching Makems in makeup at the next drinks table before the Red Arrows dazzled the huge crowd and it was time for a march back to try to escape the exodus of Park and Rides.
