April sunshine

We’re open again for the new season after a break over the winter. Hopefully this summer will be warmer, sunnier and drier than last year. I’m sure that it didn’t really rain continuously last summer – it just felt like it did!

Things seemed to be back to normal over the winter though, with lots of cold, dry weather. We’ve also had several weeks of sunshine and bright blue skies this April so it feels like spring has got off to a good start.

The chiff chaffs arrived back in mid-March as usual, and I saw a couple of swallows last weekend. The blossom is out on the cherry and plum trees, and there is fresh, green growth in the hedgerows. Lambing started a few weeks ago here, so there are now many lambs playing in the fields.

The gorse is in full flower now, turning the hillsides and haugh an incredibly bright yellow, and scenting the air with its strangely exotic coconut fragrance. It grows very abundantly around here. The local name for it is whin, and the stone on which it likes to grow (a hard grey igneous rock which was used to build for many of the older houses in Yetholm) is called whinstone.

We’ve been out for quite a few walks to make the most of the blue skies and sunshine. The ruin shown in the photo below is Seefew, on the track between Belford and Hownam that links the Bowmont and Kale valleys. I think it was always rather a quiet spot. We also took a trip round to the English side of the Cheviots, and were able to drive up onto the Otterburn Range as it was a non-firing day. There were fantastic panoramic views from the roadside.