Welcome!

This blog is to introduce you to my town - Peebles, in the Scottish Borders - just one photo at a time, with perhaps a little description and maybe some history thrown in. I hope you will find it interesting. The title comes from a historical comment made by someone who preferred Peebles to the great and famous cities. I know how they felt. It's always a pleasure to return here however long you've been away.

If you want to make a comment, ask me a question, or merely just want to say "hello, I've dropped in", you can do that by using the comment section below each entry. (Just click on the word COMMENT and follow instructions. ) I'd love to know what you think of what you see of my town.

I don't have an expensive elaborate camera so the photo quality may not be brilliant, but I'd like to think my pics will please you. Looking forward to hearing from you.

Thanks to Mary H for the lovely designs I used for my background, and thanks too to all of you who have chosen to support my blog by becoming "followers".

Tuesday 29 December 2009

Snowman

I've put more of my snowy pics on my other blog, but here is a tiny snowman - only about 9 inches high - that someone built on the parapet of the Cuddy Bridge. It seems customary to at least write in the snow on the bridge parapets but this little guy with his leaf hat on was far nicer.

Thursday 24 December 2009

Tweed Bridge

I said I would take a photo of the snowman in daylight, but I'm afraid he didn't survive that long. By 11.00 p.m. his head had been knocked over, and by the morning there was only the original snowball base. Now it has been knocked about a bit more! Such a shame!

So another snowy picture today! The snow on the trees in the background was what made me take the photo. On the right is The Trust - the Bridge Inn - and on the left the old police house. The road going off to the left is Port Brae, sometimes referred to as Police Brae, which goes down to Tweed Green. The less used road, to the Swimming Pool, goes off to the right just after the bollards outside the Trust.

Tuesday 22 December 2009

More snow

It's dark and it's snowing heavens hard, even as I write, and out there on the Green a family have been rolling a large snowball or two and building a snowman! So, viewed from my window here's the snowman taking shape. He's now become an American snowman, with two snowballs for his body and one for his head. He has a face, and buttons down the front of the middle snowball, with twig arms sticking out of it too. If I can, I'll take another photo tomorrow in daylight from closer up!

Snow!


Pretty much the same view as the one a couple of posts ago, only this was taken a few days later in the snow. Pretty, eh?

Sunday 20 December 2009

Christmas in Peebles 2


Alongside the Christmas tree on the Parish Church steps is the Nativity scene brought out every year to remind the good folk of Peebles that "Christmas begins with Christ".

Saturday 19 December 2009

First snow of the winter


Viewed from my window, the first snow for this winter, that fell a couple of days ago! Not that there was much but it is darned cold out there just now - baltic, even!
Hard to believe that all that area from beyond the trees on the other side of the river to the path in the foregound was flooded not that long ago. You couldn't see the bench at all for water!
0 degrees Celsius today but sunny!

Christmas in Peebles

The Christmas tree on the Parish Church steps.
The Peebles Christmas lights were switched on a couple of weeks ago on the night of the town's Christmas Fair.

Thursday 10 December 2009

....and again


Another old building in Parliament Square has the lintel dated 1743. I wonder who RS and HM were?

Tuesday 8 December 2009

Old Peebles again


You won't see it until you click to enlarge the picture but the plaque above the door gives the date of the building as "pre-1689" It is one of the buildings in Parliament Square, and is probably almost above the vaulted cellar. It looks to me as if it has been something like stables before, and the arches have been filled in! But who am I to say? Anyway it's a very old building, whatever!

Monday 7 December 2009

Old Peebles



Not just any old doorway but one of the oldest parts of Peebles. Through the doorway and to the left is an ancient cellar with a rounded vaulted roof. I don't know its history but it is quite possibly part of the old castle, which has long gone! It is not open to the public but I saw it once on a historic tour of the town. The passageway is known locally as the Stinking Stair, though it's not really clear whether it is named for the tannery or the brewery that were supposed to have been situated around here, way back a few centuries ago.

The passageway connects the High Street at the top to the Green at the bottom of the lane behind me. and passes through a courtyard called Parliament Square. It is thought that in the 14th century the Scottish Parliament once met in a building in the courtyard somewhere.