The Borders

My mate Gordon wanted to give his old MG a decent run so at the weekend we headed off south of Edinburgh and down through the lovely rolling hills of the Scottish Borders. We even had the roof down, although it was a little chilly for that, but it was too much fun not too, before stopping for a break in Peebles and being astonished when we looked in an estate agent's window and saw the size of house you could buy for the same as a small flat in Edinburgh.


Peebles has an awful lot of kirks for such a wee town
A view from near the river


Church spire - stupidly I forgot to note the name of the church
As we passed this church I noticed the doors were open and the stained glass caught my eye; I was wary of going in on a Sunday - not just in case I burst into flames but in case there was a service, but there wasn't another soul there and I had it to myself for a few moments. There's always something peaceful about a quiet, stone church.


If you look to the lower left panel in this one you can see a stained glass image of the actual church the window itself is in (you can compare it to the spire in the earlier pics - I noticed the spire has a 'crown'-like top similar to the one on St Giles in Edinburgh)



And back home in Edinburgh this was the view this evening after a sunny but cold winter's day, just after the sun had dipped below the western horizon. I snapped this through the window of the bus as it passed over North Bridge (surprised it worked), which strides over the valley between the Old Town and the New Town. This is looking west over the Waverly train station, with the Bank of Scotland building and the Castle up on the left, the National Gallery and Royal Scottish Academy in the centre and the Gothic rocket of the Scott Monument standing proud on the right. And that's a view that gets even my head up out of my book as I make my way home.