I bid ye bide Wardlaw

Some things take a great deal of courage.
This was the rallying cry of the Maxwells, in times of trouble. When battles lay ahead they would gather on the hill, Wardlaw, an ancient hillfort, to the north of Caerlaverock Castle.
Shopping is my battle and this was the fortification I needed for my brief excursion over the border to Gretna to entice me to face up to the fact that I needed new trousers for work. I sat in my appraisal this week thinking ... I think I've been wearing these same trousers most days for the last 3 years (regularly washed I hasten to add). I have quite a few tactics up my sleeve for all of this. Occasionally I'll 'get up and go' ... or at least plan to so that I can get it over and done with and then do something else to help me overlay the traumatic memory, and working on the basis if I do it early I might not have woken up enough to realise. Trouble is, I usually smell a rat at some point and will deflect on to something else.

Today I tried my other strategy of coaxing myself with the promise of a little excursion to a point of interest. A 'big carrot' offering. And then I'll succumb with an 'oh, alright then'. It gets a bit tricky as I have to keep myself from taking the slip road and, oops, accidentally missing the turnoff and irreversibly back on the M6 heading south.  The other strategy is to be decisive and quick. This is essential - from the point of entry into a shop I know from good experience that my energy levels sap instantaneously, usually within 20 seconds or so. I also find that it is useful if I'm keen to have a wee, that helps ... speeds things up and adds a sense of urgency. The trouble is I'm not made for trousers, or at least, not in the shapes that they appear in the shops - I'm not quite sure who they are made for but in spite of the astounding and confounding choices - skinny, bootcut, regular, long, high waist, hipsters ... etc. - remarkably not a single one seems to be made to fit me. It's then that I really resent spending the money and wish I could just spray paint a pair on every day.
Anyway, I am not irritable or frustrated. The whole experience has been overlaid by a lovely walk by Caerlaverock and my little excursion abroad. I always like the feeling and love the area and feel a sense of kinship across the Solway and the sense of the old Kingdom of Strathclyde.

The visibility was poor so I made a mental note to go back for the views across the Solway and to see if I can see the Holy Grass on the reserve.
Speaking of which, excavations on the older first castle (a short distance from the one pictured here) had dug up glass with Arabic lettering that they think had come from crusaders expeditions.