Monday 28th July - Yarrow Forge

After we finished at St Abbs we got the map out and set off for the village of Yarrow Feus. At Duns we stopped for lunch:

Duns Square

Lunch at Duns

After lunch we made our way to the A708 which leads to the village of Yarrow Feus where the Forge cottage is,

Forge Cottage

defended against the witches by a Rowan Tree:

The Rowan Tree

Round the corner to the back door

... and the conservatory

Gordon, Hilary and Shera

The Royal Mail arrived on the last morning

Gordon works on the oil rigs in Norway. He has two weeks on and 4 weeks off. Hilary is deeply involved with a production called, "Haggis, Haggis, Haggis" for the Fringe Festival in Edinburgh, as well as all her other musical interests. Shera is a Flatcoat dog and is lovely.


Hilary produced a jug of Pims for a pre-dinner drink. I haven't had a Pims in years - it was lovely.

On the night of Monday Hilary had invited her brother Robin Bell and his wife Annette round for dinner. To my astonishment he had brought round a letter that my Dad had written to his and Hilary's mother, Ann Bell, while he was in New Zealand, and gave it to me, to my delight! He also had a copy of Dad's book "British Hardwood Trees". Robin (and Gordon) had both been to Edinburgh University together and qualified in Forestry, which was my Dad's field of interest too. Robin said that the pen and ink drawings that Dad had done for the book had inspired him to pursue his personal interest in drawing, as well as being part of his professional work.

We all had a great time reminiscing about early times. Hilary produced a great dinner!