Bees and flowers on a three hour Scottish wander

It's been a something and nothing day today. I didn't get much sleep due

We saw a bee! 

to heavy rain during the night and our planned coastal walk from St Abbs was postponed because we couldn't decide what the weather was going to do this morning. Instead I took advantage of a stiff breeze to do three sinks-full of laundry - our exciting nomadic life! - and by lunchtime we were both keen to get out. Dave is having trouble with finding walks in Scotland because footpaths aren't shown on his Ordnance Survey maps. The access laws are different here so pretty much everywhere is open access land. Great when the area is well-known, but tougher when we have no idea where might be nice!

We spotted a footpath signpost near our campsite so thought we would

A mix of wild flowers 

just set off in that direction and maybe make up a two hour stroll. We were routed around the back of our host farm where we discovered they also do caravan storage. The narrow path was pretty muddy in places. We were soon out walking alongside barley fields and I was delighted to see and smell lots of pretty honeysuckle. In this photo we have honeysuckle, dog roses and foxgloves all together in a gorgeous burst of colour. There are lots of bees around here too which was encouraging to see. I noticed something bizarre about the ripening barley which I tried to explain to Dave but I don't think he could really see what I meant. I'm not sure if it comes across in this photograph either, but the yellow-to-purple colour on the fronds of each ear, when there are hundreds all together in the breeze, reminded me of the overbright rainbow effects you get when watching vintage 1980s TV on modern television sets.

Rainbow barley? 

After having to walk alongside a busyish road for a while we turned down

Whiteadder weir 

towards Whiteadder river, locally pronounced as Whit-adder, and got chatting with a woman whom we distracted from her gardening! She gave us plenty of guidance on continuing our walk and also recommended to us to visit the Chain Bridge Honey Farm. We had considered it, but will now definitely try and make the effort one day next week. We can walk there from Berwick. There was a pretty and dilapidated weir across the Whiteadder and you might just be able to spot Dave right out in the middle taking photographs. I didn't risk the cracking concrete and made the most of a convenient bench instead. Above the weir we could just make out Hutton Castle on the hill.

Hutton Castle 

Part of the area on our side of the river, where the gardening woman lived, used to be a quarry and is now the location for several exclusive residences. Dave took a look online when we got home, but they are neither our style or our budget! It has been made into a lovely area though. We were out just over three hours in all and the sun did keep us very warm for most of the way around. Walking alongside the fields was great leg exercise as the grass was incredibly overgrown and the soil soft so we kept sinking in. Our wildlife sightings were a little disappointing: bees, butterflies, swallows and a dead shrew, but we did get to see a guy taking two black Labradors for their walk by driving along slowly in his 4x4 while they ran eagerly by the driver's door!