My daughter and her partner are moving to Scotland. It’s a three hour and twenty one minute journey, traffic permitting! We are so used to seeing them every second weekend so will miss them. My husband is not impressed and can’t understand why they want to leave England! I’m looking forward to meeting different people and seeing my daughter happy and contented in her lovely new home!
Last week we decided to do a recce of the area and booked a B&B fairly close to where they would be living. It was my birthday so any excuse to get away and have some fun with my daughter! The two men were looking forward to sampling different beers so something for everyone! There was a choice of towns for shopping, all within half an hour’s drive from their new home. They were all so different! I earned brownie points from my Fitbit as we wandered around taking in the sights and planning future outings. The weather could have been better but that was out of our control!
Just to confuse foreign travellers there were a number of pubs called the ‘Cross Keys’. Apparently ‘crossed keys’ was the symbol of St Peter who guarded the gates of heaven. This sign became the symbol of English nationalism and a popular pub name after the English Civil War in the 17th century. We were in Scotland so boundaries must have changed over the years!
The morning of my birthday was wet and cold. As usual I hadn’t packed properly so, walking around an old priory garden in Melrose, I was freezing cold! My own fault but was happy to find a tearoom that sold gluten free cakes, washed down with a cup of hot Yorkshire tea! We drove on to Selkirk after lunch. I had visited a glassworks there with the children many years ago and had bought two beautiful paperweights. Unfortunately this workshop had closed in 2006 but another one was open and encouraging visitors to its workshop.
We spent the next hour watching a master craftsman create a paperweight from start to finish. It was fascinating! We were all very impressed and left with a bag full of purchases, promising to return before Christmas. We headed back to our B&B for a game of scrabble before getting ready for our evening meal. Back to Melrose and a delicious feast washed down with a couple of glasses of Malbec for the girls and a strange sounding beer for the boys!
I do wish my daughter and her partner all the very best with their move to a new country (sic) and the start of a new and exciting life. Parents never stop worrying about their children no matter how old they are. We just want them to have the very best life has to offer!
Unfortunately none of us have a crystal ball! Decisions made as a teenager, with little life experience, don’t always go according to plan! Unfortunately we can’t put the clock back and try again! Hindsight is a marvellous thing but not readily available! Regrets ruin lives already devastated by circumstances often out of our control.
My daughter and her partner are good, caring, down to earth people. I fervently hope that this next chapter in their lives will be positive and a new beginning! Richly deserved! 👠
Jenny Burrell 