Afternoon tea at Durisdeer 25-9-16

Since our first "tea" a few years ago we look forward to Durisdeer in September. The teas are actually served during July, August and September and have been for almost 50 years! Needless to say the ladies  - & gentlemen -  have serving tea down to a fine art! They can be found in the church hall, next to the church.

 

 

We decided to take a walk before our tea - to build up an appetite! Not that we needed to!

There is a track that goes beyond the church, leading into the hills. There is even a Roman fortlet further up the track.

 

 

After the recent rain the track was rather puddly in places, but as it is a stony track it was not really a problem. The sun shone as we set off although the wind was rather strong. The hills looked lovely - still very green - must be lovely when the heather that covers much of the hills is flowering!

 

 

 

As it was so windy we weren't sure whether we would see many birds about - and we were right! We did see a few buzzards and a few  - what we think were - ravens, but very few little birds. Needless to say there we no butterflies about but we did find some rather large, very hairy caterpillars ... of the Fox moth

 

photo D&G Moths

 The moss and lichens on the walls were also looking really good after the wet weather recently.

 

 

Returning to the church by the same track took us past the mausoleum to the Queensbury family. We have visited this previously but have to say what an impressive sight they are. Everything is carved from marble, with fantastic detail.

 

 

But we were ready for our tea....up the stairs, well worn from use! The church was built in 1699 and included the Ducal Retiring Rooms for when the Duke of Buccleuch and his party came to church in their horse and carriage.

The rooms were later used as a school but when Government schools were introduced the windows were stoned up to avoid paying Window Tax. The windows remained blocked up until 1968 when the rooms were restored and the idea to use them to serve teas was born. The first year only one family turned up! Definitely many more than that these days!

 

 

The food served is absolutely delicious - there must be some wonderful bakers in the area - or is it just 40+ years of practice!! Tea is served in good sized teapots, ensuring at least 2/3 cups each! China cups, saucers and plates add a sense of style with sugar bowls and milk jugs to complete the picture. Home made jam and sandwiches without crusts are just par for the course at Durisdeer!

 

 

 And all at a VERY reasonable price! Durisdeer will be on our calendar next year too!

 

 

Map of Scotland, Peebles 23rd September 2016

Scotland and Poland have had cultural and trade links since at least the 16th Century but the Second World War saw thousands of Polish troops come to Scotland as allies in the fight against Germany. They were tasked with defending a long stretch of the East coast against invasion. In 1942 the 1st Polish Armoured division, under General Maczek, came to the borders to train and prepare for the liberation of occupied Europe and in that year Barony Castle in Peebles became the main Polish Staff Officer training college.

 

 

After the war Maczek, and many of his comrades, including Jan Tomasik, made their homes in Scotland. The 3D map of Scotland was actually the brainchild of Jan Tomasik who had been a Sergeant in the 1st Polish Armoured Division. He had been stationed at Galashiels and married a Scottish nurse in 1942 after being injured and treated in the town's hospital. After the war he became a successful hotelier in Edinburgh and bought the hotel in Peebles in 1968. Maczek and Tomasik were friends and neighbours in Edinburgh, with Maczek staying for summer holidays at the hotel while the map was being built.

 

 

Tomasik had seen a miniature scale model of Belgium at the Brussels World Fair in 1958 and this is thought to be the inspiration for his creation of the map of Scotland. He hoped it would become a tourist attraction!

In the early 70's he proposed his idea to Professor Klimaszewski of Krakow University and a cartographer began the design work. Beginning in 1974, the project was managed and supervised by Tomasik's son-in-law and the hotel manager. With the help of the hotel maintenance man they did much of the basic construction work. It was built over 6 summers between 1974 and 1979, with visiting Polish exchange students looking for summer jobs, providing the labour.

 

 

They began by marking out the shapes of the islands - to a scale of 1:10,000. Three contour lines of 300, 600 and 900 metres were then laid in brick courses with shuttering to contain the concrete. Once the body of the map was completed they then had to manually sculpt the landforms. Mountain heights were slightly exaggerated to enhance the visual impact. The terrain was finally completed and painted in 1976. By 1979 features were painted onto the surface of the map and the pit was surrounded by its wall allowing water to be pumped into the basin to form the seas and some rivers.

 

 

The building of the map was therefore quite a job! It measures 50 metres by 40 metres and lies in an oval pit surrounded by a 142 metre long wall. It covers 1590 square metres and is believed to be the largest three-dimensional physical representation of a country and the largest outdoor relief map in the world!

photo from mapascotland

Unfortunately in 1985 the hotel closed and the map fell into disrepair until it was almost completely covered over. On a visit to Scotland in 1994 the original cartographer, Dr Trafas, mentioned the existence of the map to town planners and it was rediscovered!

Mapa Scotland, a group of volunteers, was formed in 2010 to save and restore the map and major funding was finally secured in 2013 to ensure that it doesn't get lost again! The hope is that it becomes an educational resource and tourist attraction for future generations.

 

The map is free to visit and they have recently built a platform so that you can view it from a height and get a better view of the map. An amazing structure.

 

 

Floral Favourites August 2016

The weather was very changeable at the beginning of the month, with 60-70mph winds at times during the first week! It seems to be the time of bulbs and corms at the moment - with lilies, dahlias and gladioli giving of their best. The day lily's are a warm mid-orange colour and last for ages despite their individual blooms only lasting one day.

 

 

The dahlias are rather lovely. I like their 2-colour flowers.

 

 

The gladioli have a most unusual lime green colour.

 

 

One of my favourite plants comes into bloom now as well. Fuschias make attention spots around the garden with their different colour flowers and calices. Pruning them right back in the spring seems very drastic at the time, but it certainly reaps rewards now. There are so many varieties to choose from and they are a plant that is easy to take cuttings from.

 

 

Other cuttings taken at this time of year include lavender and sage. The bees love both plants but they end up getting rather woody after a while and I like to take cuttings and start with new plants. The woody prunings after flowering still smell beautiful as they get shredded to go in the compost bin for recycling onto the garden at a later date. Don't like to waste anything in the garden if we can help it.

There has been much pruning and dead heading now that many early flowering plants are going over.

The petunias, with their huge purple blooms, however, are still flowering and the roses, after dead-heading, are coming up to flower again!

 

 

The acanthus we bought earlier in the year has finally come up to flower - what a spiky, very architectural plant. Should look even better next year as it grows.

In the wild flower patch the red poppies are still blooming, and the toadflax I think is a lovely little flower. There are still so many flowers looking good in the garden.

 

 

August

 

The flowers continue to give of their best

But the weeds flourish too, giving no rest.

Dead heading and pruning - all jobs to be done

Watering and staking are not always fun!

Taking cuttings, finding seedlings - now that's no chore

Plants for free - a bonus for sure.

Collecting seed from dry brown heads

Bag and label, or scatter in the beds.

More free plants to plug the gaps

Less room for weeds, ..maybe, ..perhaps

Plenty of jobs still to be done

This gardening lark will run and run...

Chore after chore, day after day,

No time to rest - or put the tools away!

 

August Wildife Sightings from a garden in Annan

August has been a busy month so our records may not be as complete as they could be! It has been nice to see some birds - other than house sparrows - about in the garden again, and a bonus to see the robin back. Some starlings are beginning to swoop about together - practising for murmurating later perhaps??

Monthly max is as follows:

Blackbird - 3 young

Bluetit - 3

Buzzard - 2

Coal tit - 1

Dunnock - 1

Goldfinch - 2 adult, 2 young

Great tit - 1

House sparrow -50

Jackdaw - 1

Pied wagtail - 1

Robin - 1

Starling - 12

Swallow - 1

Swift - 10, although we have not seen any since 16-8-16

Woodpigeon - 2

Wren - 1

The bees are still very busy around the garden - did mean to go out and do more of a bee count but just never got to do it! Our monthly max should be more than this but here it is:

Buff/white tailed bee - 3

Carder bee - 3

Honey bee - 1

Red tailed bee - 2

Tree bumble bee - 1

We have certainly seen an increase this month in the number of butterflies around the garden. As the buddleia finally came into full bloom the butterflies seemed to appear. Not seen as many painted ladies in the last couple of years as we have this year. The wall brown was a nice surprise too.

Green veined white butterfly - 1

Large white butterfly - 7

Painted lady butterfly - 5

Peacock butterfly - 2

Red admiral butterfly - 6

Small tortoiseshell butterfly - 7

Wall brown butterfly - 1

Moth trapping has been a busy occupation this month - but not always in our own garden! We have set traps in other locations and helped organise a community trapping in Canonbie, where 6 traps were set around the village. Experts were on hand to help ID the moths and a good day was had by all

At home we trapped 5 times this month. 

1-8-16 - 84 moths of 32 species

8-8-16 - 48 moths of 16 species. We did catch 2 new moths, a Juniper pug and a Dark sword-grass

 

Juniper pug



Dark sword-grass

14-8-16 - 77 moths of 14 different species, including one new species for us

 

Blastobasis adustella

18-8-16 - 25 moths of 10 species, with 1 new moth

 

Oblique carpet

29-8-16 - 23 moths of 11 species, but with 3 new moths

 

Emmelina monodactyla



Blastodacna hellerella

 

and the star of the show......

 

Caloptilia azaleella

This was the first record of this moth in Dumfriesshire, in fact the first anywhere in D&G!!

Our record will be added to the D&G list of moths and go on their website too. So, a brilliant catch for us and one of the 7 new moths for the garden this month!

While mothing we also saw 2 bats zooming around the garden. Rushing to get our bat detector from indoors we could then listen to the clicks when they came anywhere near.

 

DGERC species to look out for this month are:

 

Kingfisher Alcedo atthis

 

Primarily an inhabitant of rivers and streams, they are often just seen as a blue blur accompanied by a high-pitched call. hearing their call is often the best way to detect their presence and perhaps get a better view!

In D&G they appear to be more common in the east of the region.

 

Alder tongue gall Taphrina alni

If you look closely at an alder tree you may see "tongues" on some of the female catkins. These are pale at first, maturing to red/purple and persisting as brown withered tongues on old catkins. You can get multiple tongues on a catkin. The tongues are a type of gall - an abnormal growth on a plant caused by another organism. the gall causer here is the fungus Taphrina alni. D&G has few records of this gall so new records would be welcome.

Photos from DGERC

Tour of Britain Sept 2016

We usually check the route of this bike race to see when it comes close to us. This year Stage 1 travelled from Glasgow to Castle Douglas and Stage 2 headed from Carlisle to Kendal. So plenty of possible locations to see the cavalcade pass by if the weather permitted.

We study the route to find somewhere where the bikes are likely to slow down, otherwise it is just a blur and a whoosh.

The forecast looked quite good for both days so we headed to St John's Town of Dalry in D&G which was the last sharp bend on narrow roads before the long sprint to Castle Douglas.

Away from the crowds outside the village pub, a few locals had gathered at the junction further up the village and we settled down on our folding chairs.

 

The outriders started to appear about ½ hour before the bikes were due. Firstly the organisers and media photographers in their cars.

 

 

Closely followed by Police and Race Marshalls on their motor bikes who stop all the traffic.

Once the PA vehicle arrived with its loudspeakers arrived we were told there was a small breakaway group coming first with a 2 minute advantage over the main field. The action wasn't far behind now.

 

 

The helicopter could be heard in the sky and the breakaway group came through followed by a TV camera bike.

Then a short while later a second TV camera bike came through followed by the Peleton.

 

Then as they pass by it is a case of keeping the finger on the button of the camera (remember if you click on any photo you get a larger view and can see them as a slideshow)

 

 

We managed to spot Mark Cavendish mid-field.

 

 

 

 

 

 

And Sir Bradley near the back!

 

 

 

Then more of the Police, Marshalls and the team cars come rolling through.

 

 

On the Monday we headed to Cumwhinton which is a small village just outside Carlisle after the roll out has finished and race proper has started.

 Again we were positioned on a sharp bend waiting for the Police outriders. We noted that the motorbikes were from many counties from around the country.

 

 

The riders had not yet formed a breakaway and came through bunched together.

 

 

 Val took a video to give an idea of the speed and the number of support vehicles that follow the bikes. The video had to stop when someone walked in front of the camera!!

Once you click play you can change to a larger view by clicking the symbol (bottom right)

 

We then jumped in the car and made our way back around Carlisle and headed towards Bassenthwaite where we knew the route met various road junctions. Our first choice had no parking spaces available so we went further down the route and found a Narrow Bridge and sharp bend which they would have to negotiate (and we found somewhere to park up!).

 

 

This time our choice of location was also where one of the official media photographers had decided to take some low angle shots !!

 

The breakaway pass the bridge first with the race leader in yellow.

 

The Peleton were not far behind but it was more difficult to spot Mark Cavendish as they rushed passed.

 

But we knew where to find Sir Bradley Wiggins because he had admitted he was only along for the ride as a thank you to the public of Britain for their support.

 

 

 

 The rain started as we drove home so we had been very lucky with our locations.

We will have to wait for next years route!!