On the Road Again

Yesterday, on another glorious morning, we headed out to take proper pictures of Floors Castle and see the small town of Kelso.  Again we headed out the Selkirk Road, this time with me driving so Gordon could enjoy the stunning views.  We stopped to take pictures of St. Mary's Loch:

Just like a mirror!  It was clear, still and beautiful.

Gorgeous eh?

Across the River Tweed from Floors Castle.

Once we arrived at Floors we parked by the garden center and approached the castle from one of the stunning gardens.  Here's a lovely garden backed by one wall of the "walled garden".  Look at those beautifully pruned wisterias.

The two pictures above are of this garden captured here on a sign.  The manicured garden is just too huge to photograph.

A walk through this lovely forest takes us to the Castle.

A little panoramic!

We sat on a bench for a while taking in the view.  Again, the day was fabulous and so rare for Scotland to have so many days in a row of absolute sunshine.  It's still pretty cool though.

Toward the entry into the Castle.

The Main Entry.

Check out this knocker!  There were 2.

And cool sconces.

You are not allowed to take photographs within the Castle but the entry room was pretty grand with lots of ages old oil paintings, giant books and huge antiques.

Another small walled garden.

Approaching the river side of the home.  Lovely garden borders even for this time of year.

The view toward the Tweed River.

Pretty fancy trim for a home but see how the stone is just crumbling away?

And a couple of fossils!

We drove into Kelso and had a bar lunch at a hotel call Ednam House Hotel right on the Tweed River.  We had a table with a lovely view of the river looking out over a very green lawn and a beautiful rose garden.

Looking left and right outside of the bar lounge along the Tweed.

Apparently this part of the Tweed River is THE hot spot for salmon and trout fishing and celebrities and "stars" will come here for fly fishing.  The river is fairly wide here and moving pretty well.  We didn't see anyone fishing here but there was someone fishing from a boat further up the river.

The Ednam House Hotel.

One of the sitting rooms.

As we were leaving Kelso we stopped to take another couple pictures of the Castle.  It's hard to picture yourself living in a property like that.  The number of servants it must have taken to keep up a home of this size is staggering....again, think Downton Abbey on a much bigger scale.

Gordon drove home after our visit to Kelso and I snoozed a little though I have to tell you on these curvy, skinny roads it's not exactly restful to close your eyes!  As we got closer to Moffat I sat up and noticed that we were following this guy.....

and we proceeded along at a very slow pace with this truck swaying and swerving in front of us.

With the rain on its way, today will be a day at home working out, cleaning house and probably taking a little walk into town for a few things for tomorrow nights dinner.  I think I'll need to run to the grocery in Lockerbie too.  I miss my one mile away grocery store in Pleasanton!  Gordon's cousin, Frances, is coming round to dinner tomorrow night so preparations must be made!