The weather really has been dire, so as soon as the rain went off for more than five minutes, we headed out for a walk. The first set of photos are from a walk round Hawick. You can see how much water was still roaring over the rocks in the Slitrig, a tree almost uprooted ...... and how did that straw bale get in the river?
as we walked back to the car, I stopped to take photos of this old Rover, which I think has been lying abandoned in all the time we have lived in Hawick!
after all the grey skies, it was good to have some bright blue sky in these photos
the next set of photos come from a walk round Berwick - again with some blue skies. But it was also very windy, so some of the shots are slightly shaky, as it is hard to keep the camera steady when the big lens is fully extended (Malcolm kindly let me use his shoulder as a tripod for some of the photos!)
I wasn't surprised to see the golfers ...... it takes much worse weather to stop them playing!!
at least the golfers were on dry land, unlike this chap. This is definitely not my idea of fun - I would want an awful lot bigger boat before you would get me on the water!!
there aren't many swans about at the moment, so it was good to see this one. It's only when you see them out of the water that you realise just how big they are
the last lot of photos come from a walk on the beach on New Year's Day. It was the first time we had been on the beach since the storms and floods, and we were amazed at the huge piles of detritus
there were lots of turnips all along the beach. We think they had probably been in a field to feed the sheep, and were washed away by flood water
sadly, the lump in the middle of this photo is a dead sheep - you can just make out its horns at the right hand side of the lump
the entire beach has been affected by the storms, with groynes being uncovered - some of which we hadn't seen before
Malcolm was just wondering if he could take this tree home with him!
we decided not to join the swans for a paddle!
as we walked back to the flat, of course I had to take a photo of the three bridges
the heron was oblivious to the seagull floating behind him
it had turned much colder, and we had to watch out for frozen puddles - I didn't want to slip and end up in an undignified heap!
and so to the last photo ...... when we went out for our walk, we popped into the supermarket to get the newspapers, and I had a quick look in the clothing section for a hat, as my ears were freezing, just in the short distance we had walked! Not quite my usual style, but it was relatively cheap, and very warm!