....... and lots of good food! After a quiet evening on Tuesday, Wednesday saw us raring to go, to show Anna as much as possible. We started with a stroll up the road to the church ...... but didn't get far before we had to stop to take photos of this huge flock of birds sitting on the phone wires
then there were sheep posing prettily - in deference to our visitor, they didn't turn and point their bottoms at her, as they do with me!!
and there were views to be admired
we headed into Hawick to visit the exhibitions at The Towerhouse. After parking, we crossed footbridge over the River Teviot ....... I jokingly said I has asked the heron to be there - and there he was!
we had a brief diversion to call in to our lovely neighbours shoe shop, then we spent so long at the Towerhouse that we had to review our plans for lunch, and called into the Pickled Orange. Anna had expressed an interest in experiencing one of our famous "scones for lunch" ....... so that is what we had, sharing a plain one, a cheese one and a cherry one (superb!!)
suitably fortified, we headed off to Jedburgh to visit Mary, Queen of Scots House
our next stop was at Abbotsford, home of Sir Walter Scott
we had a very special dinner on Wednesday, as we had lots to celebrate ........ we have just had our 29th Wedding Anniversary, it is ten years since Malcolm took early retirement, nine years since we moved to Hawick, and of course Anna's visit. We started with a glass of champagne ......... Stuart and Alison gave me this bottle for Mothers Day, and I had put it away for a special occasion
The first course was Scottish smoked salmon, with homemade brown bread (ok, I opened a packet of bread mix and put it in my breadmaker!)
we had started the next course before I remembered to take a photo! Asparagus and broccoli soup, topped with crumbled blue cheese
then I forgot to take a photo of the main course - venison casserole with sage dumplings (delicious!). So, on to the pudding. I thought I would make cranachan, which I had never made before. I had a look in two of my Scottish cookery books ...... the recipes were much the same, except one said to add one tablespoon of whisky, while the other one said to add six! (and if you click on the link to look at the recipe, that one says seven tablespoons!) I thought I would play safe and only add one spoonful, which pleased Malcolm, as I was using his best single malt!
We should have finshed with some local cheeses - but e couldn't manage another bite! We eventually staggered off to bed, as we wanted an early start to go over to Berwick ....... and Thursday was another special day, as it was Malcolm's birthday! I'll tell you all about it tomorrow (and explain why we only had one scone between the three of us!!)