1. The chickens are pottering about just a few metres away from where we’re having our breakfast so it’s no surprise that the yolks are a rich orange.
2. We’d hoped to have a lazy day but our hosts are going out so we have to go out too. We head into Jedburgh: last year, it was sleeting while we were there and we found it unimpressive (aside from a good charity shop yarn score), but this time, in better weather, we go inside the ruined abbey. It’s interesting to hear how the building was used in its heyday – how it grew and shrunk over time, and how the local lords and common people kept using it after it had begun to decay.
2b. We start our audio commentaries like we’re synchronizing watches for a military invasion.
2c. We follow around a sweet cocker spaniel.
2d. The Castle Jail is not quite as interesting – we’re lagging and distracted – but every now and then, we catch ourselves and imagine what it must have been in those cells for months or years at a time. (It’s the placing of a simple bed – that shrinks the floor size – and a cold breeze through the window that makes it feel real to us.)
2e. Bonc the dog repeatedly visits our table in the pub to accept strokes and ask to share our crisps.
3. The pub we choose for dinner is not fine dining like it was a year ago – just standard pub fare – but it’s, you know, fine all the same. There is a strong dash of five spice on the ribs and the burger is peppery, topped with a strong cheese.
3b. A ridiculous amount of crows flies towards a tree that is already laden down with a heavy murder.
3c. We take the prettier route home and are intrigued by (the wonderfully named) Fatlips Castle high on the hillside above the road.
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