Barns Tower

We  took walk along the Tweed from Manor Bridge, which brought us to Barns Tower, a late C17 tower house, built by William Burnet the 4th Laird of Barns and his wife Margaret Stewart of Shillinglaw - a family related to the Stuart earls of nearby Traquair. Their Initials W.B and M.S. are carved above one of the upper floor windows (that on the left). Besides the human occupants taking advantage of a few days' break, the house martins were busy attending to their nests in the eaves - we counted 13 in this view.

Along the way I managed to photograph a few butterflies and a couple of other interesting views, seen in the collage -
 top row, l-r - a grasshopper that jumped into the car when we parked and sat on my camera case; tortoiseshell; meadow brown:
bottom row l-r - ringlet; newly-emerged ringlet; and mother duck with five ducklings, which battled their way upstream against a strong current. (missing from collage the grey wagtail and white campion).

On returning to the car we stood on the bridge, watching a fisherman casting his line, hoping that fish would not bite; although 'barbless hooks must be used' and fish 'returned to the river' I still dislike the activity they call a sport.