Veitch's Corner

The east end of the High Street, where it meets the Eastgate and Northgate has been known as Veitch's Corner for many a long year, the name taken from the draper's shop on the corner, which now sadly has closed after a long family connection with the building. It is greatly missed.

Those of you who have not been in Peebles for many years will see a great many differences, but I expect the view is still as familiar, with Ven Law in the background covered in cultivated forestry!

The two fancy lamp posts stand outside the Chambers Institution, and almost hidden by the one on the right is the Mercat Cross.

Peebles Fish Bar

The "chippie" is a fundamental part of Scottish life! Every town has at least one, to cater for the tastes of the Scots (and the English! They have them too!) quite often after the pub has closed and a "wee snack" will go down well!

I know you folks in the Netherlands at least, find the combination of fish and chips quite strange, but to us it's perfectly normal, and extremely enjoyable, given a good chippie. A portion of fish'n'chips is known as a Fish Supper here, though I know different regions in England have their own name for it, e.g. a fish paper in the northeast. However you are not restricted to Fish Suppers. The menu usually includes pie suppers (Scotch pies or flaky pastry mince pies), haggis suppers, black, and maybe white, pudding suppers ( blood puddings or meal puddings, like sausages)..... and these days a portion of curry sauce is an additional favourite! Not a curry fan myself!

You've ordered your preferred Supper, the fish and a scoop or two of chunky chips - not those skinny little fries for us - has been dished up in a polystyrene tray - it was newspaper in my young day - and the question shoots over the counter at you "Salt'n'sauce?" Salt you will understand, but the sauce in question is chippie sauce, brown sauce! Not for us your tomato ketchup! It's broon sauce! You do also have the choice of vinegar of course!

These days chippies have branched out into pizza making, which is a welcome addition, IMHO, to the menu, and one or two also sell baked potatoes with a variety of toppings! An attempt to get us to eat more healthily I suppose! However, don't get me wrong here, we don't eat fish'n'chips all the time! It's just a nice change now and again, quick and easy!

A pub for Andrew

This should be a familiar sight to Andrew in Aussieland who has been good enough to comment on the blog here!
The pub took its name from the castle just outside Peebles which I have to feature here one of these days. The plaque outside, between the windows mentions Oliver Cromwell's not very friendly association with the castle in 1650. Basically he wrecked it!

At street level, behind the frosted windows, is the public bar where many a young, and not so young, lad has got fu' of a weekend night. Sadly the ladettes are catching up! Behind the public bar is the lounge, with its comfy seating and its own bar, while the room at the rear has been converted into a restaurant. The lounge is sometimes used for entertainment, and the folk music club meets there every couple of weeks or so.

Hope this brings back memories, Andrew.

Shadows

The sun has a wee way to go before it reaches its highest point in the sky, but towards the late afternoon right now, it casts the trees of the Green into long dark shadows.

Note the washing poles on the Green too! It used to be that this was where the townspeople could hang out their laundry to dry in the wind. Nobody does it now though, but the poles remain as a reminder that the Green is a public place and can still, under local by-laws, be used for drying laundry, as well as for grazing your sheep. Now there's a thing!

The cauld

The Scots word cauld can mean two things - as a noun it is a weir, and as an adjective, cold! I bet the water in the cauld IS cauld! It looks fairly gentle here but the undercurrents of a cauld are fairly strong so a notice advises that one keeps off the cauld!

Underneath the arches II

Through the third arch is where I suspect the old mill-lade returned water to Tweed from the mill - water that had been taken in from the Cuddy side of the building to power the factory machinery.

Generally only a little water flows under this arch now but on days of heavy rain, much of that green promontary can be flooded.

Underneath the arches....

Looking under the fourth arch of Tweed Bridge you would once have seen the tall-chimneyed woollen mill, in front of you. It was destroyed by a fire in the 1960s, but eventually the town swimming pool was built on the site . It's not easy to get a decent picture of the pool building, but here's a section taken under the bridge, with the river path wandering next to it.

Gone Fishing

Just above the point where Cuddy meets Tweed is a favourite spot to cast a line or two.

Trust me to take a photo of the fisherman as he was blowing his nose!

To sit in the sun - or not.......?

It just shows that even when the sun is shining the chilly east wind is still blowing! These folks wanted to sit in the spring sun on Tweed Green, so they came prepared with a windbreak! Clever people!

Play parks

I've been neglecting this blog too long! Just thought I would show you the view from my window, across the river!

This is the children's playpark that has recently had a big refurbishment done on it! I read somewhere about a playground for the elderly. Wish they'd make one here! Here's the link! It was in the Daily Mail last year! It would certainly beat going to the gym!

4? 6? or even 8?

I'm getting a few of my scrapbook pages onto my blogs these days! There are several of these wonderful lamps on the parapet of Tweed Bridge, though for the life of me I couldn't tell you if there are four or six! I rather think there are six! I showed you one of them on 10th February, and commented on the tiddly lamps at the top, but you couldn't really see the base too well, so here it is, looking a lot clearer. I suspect the fish is a stylised salmon, the fish for which Tweed is famous. It's certainly very impressive and makes me think of one of the spires in Copenhagen, Denmark, which is of four dragons with their long tails twisted upwards into the spire!

Having just looked up a couple of websites, I can now tell you that the bridge lamps date back to when the bridge was last widened in 1900, and that the fish are dolphins!? The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland has some interesting old photos of the bridge and one of the former lamps. Click here and when you get to the photos you can enlarge them by clicking them too! I can also tell you that there may even be eight lamps! I'll have to go out and count them, and I'll tell you next time!

A sunny spring day

It's on days like today when it is pouring with rain that it's good to remember that sunny days will come again and a walk along the riverside again will be a pleasure. This was taken about two weeks ago just before the trees burst into leaf thanks to the warm sunny spell we had then. Once again I am looking back downriver towards Tweed Bridge.

Modern History

When I was a child in the 50s, air raid sirens were still tested every so often, and were used to summon retained firemen to the firestation when they were required to go out and fight a fire.

Gradually, without it really being noticed by a small child who hadn't grown up in the war, the sirens stopped. I do remember a few being dismantled in Edinburgh, like the ones on the old "Tardis" style police boxes but I didn't give them much thought at all.

Last week a piece of news hit the front page of the Peeblesshire News. During the restoration work being carried out on the steeple of the parish church at the moment, a discovery was made. Peebles' old siren was found way up at the top, still connected to the electrical supply, but forgotten about for about 50 years. It has now been lowered by ropes from its hiding place and is to become a feature in the museum.

This photo was taken early one Sunday morning recently - hardly a car in sight, and certainly no pedestrians or workmen either! The steeplejacks say they should finish work this week! Anything else to be found before they do, I wonder?