September 26, Burnbrae

Woke to quiet!  The wind wasn't blowing.  Yesterday at Haddington the wind was blowing so hard it felt like it could blow our clothes off.  It drove the rain right into our pants,  brrr!  It was a bit misty out when we got up but not bad.  We got off to a leisurely start.  Roy went for a stroll around the grounds while I finished getting ready.  He visited Yvette to ask her to reconnect our wi/fi.  They were setting up for a machine embroidery class.  I went down to snoop but no one was around.  Damn.

We went to Jedburough first.  I really wanted a sweater.  The shop in Kelso didn't have anything that was the right colour or size so we looked at the Jedburough Woolen Mill.  We both got sweaters.  It took awhile as they didn't have a full line either.  The quality wasn't as good as the shop in Kelso but the price was much better.  There was a quilt store across the street so we checked it out.  Not much different from home.  Prices about the same.  Enough stores - we are off to Melrose,

The roads were dry but the rivers and streams (burns) are very full.  We went straight to Abbotsford (Sir Walter Scotts home) but it is closed until next year for an update.  We were so disappointed.  There is a new visitor center with lots of information about the great writer but we have heard so much about his home that it was a real let down.  The town of Melrose is very pretty and we had a mediocre lunch there.  Found the Abbey but didn't feel it was worth $15.00 to see the ruins.  We did visit the Melrose Roman Museum.  It is small and the people associated with it are passionate about it. Most people don't know that the Romans were this far north of Hadrian's wall.  There were 6 major forts and about two dozen minor forts.  They arrived in this area in about 80 AD and stayed for about a 100 years. When they left it was very hard on the local people.

That was our nod to culture for the day.  We hit the road for Galasheils and the Asda store.  Yvette told Roy they have Fire Man Sam stuff and they did so we did some Christmas shopping!  We are moving to a self catering place in the Lanark area tomorrow so we got some groceries and headed for Braeburn.  Feel like we know the road now.

Back at the cottage we did some suitcase organizing and had chicken, steamed veggies, potatoes and salad.  Fresh local strawberries and dark chocolate for dessert.   A feast!

Off to bed