Acting my age

Today’s guest picture is the last that I have at present from my siblings’ visit to Barcelona.  My brother likes museums and art galleries.  This is the Catalan Museum.

The forecast was quite promising, the main features being no rain and very light winds so I was looking forward to a decent pedal.  The light winds meant that temperatures were too low to start pedalling after breakfast so I spent a little time peering out of the window at the mist filled garden.

I was interested to see a ring on the chaffinch, the first I have noticed for some time.

I kept an eye on the thermometer and got quite excited when it hit four degrees C but less so when it it subsequently dropped back to 3 degrees.  I considered my options.

A chaffinch meanwhile considered his.

Finally, the thermometer edged back to 3.9 so I piled on as many clothes as I could wear and still cycle and set off up the Wauchope road after a quick stop to buy some fuel for the journey from John’s shop.

First signs were a bit gloomy…

…but I pedalled on hopefully, turning left over the hill and eventually getting onto the Annan road.  I stopped in Annan after 22 miles for a cheese toastie and a cappucino and then headed out to the road along the Solway shore.  By this time, the mist had gone and the sky was blue.  It was still chilly but the splendid row of very out of character houses at Cummertrees looked at their best.

I quote from the Dumfriesshire Companion of Haig Gordon:

There were brash new beginnings at Kinmount when the Yorkshire businessman Edward Brook took over the estate in the 1890s (adding it to his other big acquisition, Hoddom estate near Ecclefechan). He had plans for creating a vast seaside resort between Cummertrees and Powfoot. The scheme never took off but at the east end of the village a flavour of what he had envisaged remains in Queensberry Terrace, a row of properties originally intended as holiday apartments – ‘like a cross between Blackpool and Chelsea’, commented one architectural historian.

Anyone who has seen the mud flats along the Solway shore at Powfoot will not have to think hard as to why this grandiose scheme failed.

I was soon through Cummertrees and Ruthwell and looking across the flat fields towards Criffel and the mist covered Nith Estuary.

The skies are big here.

I paused for a moment at the Brow Well…

…a not very appetising looking mineral spring.  It has a claim to fame though as a notice suggests.

The notice doesn’t add that the poet died shortly after his visit.  He drank the chalybeate waters and was dunked in the icy Solway near here in an attempt to cure his misdiagnosed gout.  I prefer the pills I get for my rheumatic arthritis and feel thankful in this case for the march of medical science.

I enjoyed a little bridge beside the well.

This stretch of road is genuinely flat and a great pleasure to pedal along.  My target was the small village of Bankend…

…where, in spite of the lovely day,  the bridge had a lot of water flowing under it.  This is the Lochar Water.

I would have to liked to have my long lens with me as there was an interesting tower a few hundred yards up stream.

Isle Tower is an early 17th century stone T-plan tower house, founded by Edward Maxwell of Isle.

I turned for home at Bankend as the days are still quite short and I didn’t want to be caught in the gloaming still pedalling.

As well as big sky, the Solway shore had some big puddles in the roadside fields as well.  This was the biggest of the day.

You can just see the real sea in the background.

I stopped at Ruthwell to eat my fuel from John’s shop, an egg roll, a banana and a very sticky tray bake.  There was a convenient bench there but it had been designed by someone with very short legs and I kept banging my chin as I ate.

Leaving Ruthwell, I pedalled on tiny back roads down to the shore at Powfoot.  The last time Mrs Tootlepdal and I had been here, a very high tide and angry seas were threatening to overwhelm the car park. Today it was playing host to a group of keen bird watchers.

Once back through Annan, I took the road to Gretna and enjoyed the last of my food on a bench opposite the Old Blacksmith’s Shop at Gretna Green.

This is just one of three marriage rooms in Gretna and marriage is big business there.  It was the nearest place to the border where English couples could get married under Scottish law and was popular as a destination for eloping youngsters.  Mysteriously, to me at any rate, it remains seriously popular still and is a bus tour destination.

My literal mind looked at the sign on the side of the blacksmith’s shop….

…and wondered what colour it had been before 1754.

From Gretna, I took a winding trail that led me down to Canonbie and a return to Langholm by the morning run cycle route.

The sky had clouded over by the time that I got home and the temperature was still only a meagre 6 degrees but the light winds had meant that I had enjoyed a very good day out on the bike.   Details of the ride may be found  by clicking on the map.

Not by coincidence but by design, my Garmin device recorded exactly 72 miles as I reached my house.  This corresponds with my age and it is my intention in future years to keep cycling at least once a year as far as I am old for as long as possible.

The ride brought my total for February up to 500 miles which is well above target and gives me a little leeway in the month to come.

Mike and Alison, Maisie’s and Frances’ grandparents have arrived back from New Zealand and came round for their customary Friday evening visit.   I enjoyed playing some sonatas on flute and recorder with Alison at the keyboard while Mrs Tootlepedal heard from Mike of their adventures down under.  I hope to have some photos of their trip, which included a visit to Singapore, in future posts.

I did just manage to get a flying bird picture in the morning mist before I left the house.