Day out

The one bit of this 'lost weekend' I can go ahead with.  Day started off, well I slept in so it started off in bed.  Then I drove to Shawfair, getting lost twice, to get the train t =o Tweedbank. My gamble that the cloud would lift once I was inland did not pay off. Total cloud cover stayed all day.

However, the train journey was very pleasant and the Abbotsford minibus was waiting at the station. I did the tour of the ground floor of the house.  I was last there 50+ years ago.  Don't remember any of it. I was impressed that Sir Walter installed gas in the house in the early 1820's.  My 3 x great grandfather went bankrupt in the same 1826 financial crash that did for Sir Walter. 

Had a walk round the gardens.  The tulips were just going over.  It wasn't really the weather for exploring the rest of the estate so I had lunch in the cafe.  Suffered the usual fate of the lone diner, being ignored by the waiting staff.

Walked back to the station at pace and past Gunsknowe Loch.  There were many swans.  A couple had flown overhead earlier when I was in the garden.  Very noisy.

The trip back from Shawfair was less eventful than the trip there.

Had a mid afternoon snooze.  This has been an energy sapping week.

Later had another conversation with the BBC re the Veterans' Project, managed to log on to Oasis and watched HIGNFY.