Tweed

The famous salmon and seatrout River Tweed flows here opposite Dryburgh Abbey in the Borders. Occasionally fish jumped and overhead two buzzards were calling while wagtails and other birds were searching among the stones and shrubs. The bank was covered in a wide variety of flowers including blue and white bellflowers and moths and butterflies fluttered by. My intended blip of a large yellow moth was disappointing and my brown ringlet butterfly looked uninteresting so the river scene is a compromise.

We had intended walking along the River Tweed from St Boswells to Melrose as far as it was possible along the river bank. Initially we had no problem but eventually we were scrambling along a very narrow and barely discernable path and I thought I was going to end up in the river so we found a path which lead to an old railway track and the Leaderfoot Viaduct. The trackside wild strawberries were a welcome addition to our picnic as we sat overlooking the site of the vast Roman Trimontium fort where many years ago thousands had stayed but now all we had met the whole way were two men and a dog.