gb0551ms-33-134

Transcription

[Page] 134
[continued from page 135]

On another day we had a visit from the
College of Agriculture adviser for Peeblesshire, his
fellow for Roxburgh being unwell. He surprised me
by pronouncing the sandy, gravelly soil of
the garden to be very fertile and capable of
growing anything! Certainly the display
of roses etc. on the neighbouring house
earlier in the year showed that it could not
be unfertile. Nearly every afternoon we went
motor excursions into the surrounding
country in every direction - beyond towns to the
south, up Yarrow, beyond Selkirk, - to Kelso etc.
The cottage gardens nearly everywhere were
lovely with bright displays of dahlias. The
leaves have just taken on their autumn tints
on the trees. We returned a few days
ago, sorry our holiday was over, at least I was
particularly so, for I find Barnton avenue
a very dreary, depressing place to live in.
The shops in Melrose are very good and
the place seems prosperous, Daily in summer
motor coaches, on tour, arrive from numerous
cities in the South. We expect to get into
our new home in the end of next month and
I shall return to Burt’s hotel a week earlier to be
out of the way!

23rd Oct.
Said farewell to Ormsacre For the last few
weeks I have been collecting offsets of plants, as
far as possible and have taken up about a score
of the old fashioned roses, moss etc. Kind neighbours,
the Halls and Roney Dougalls will keep such as
we cannot take direct, till we are in a position
to receive them, - I have stayed at Burt’s
Hotel for three weeks, going out to Weirknow
every day, where Mary and Catherine are settling
in while various tradesmen, electricians, plumbers etc.
are finishing off. I have secured the services
of a retired gardener, who was for 12 years in the
service of the Riddell Carres, to come on one day a week,
but so far (Dec. 5th.) except for digging the side border
nothing has been done in the garden

5 Dec. 1952
Here we are settled and the last tradesman has
left the inside of the house, but they are now
busy erecting the garage, in fact – re-erecting the
North wall owing to our neighbour having made
herself disagreeable by reason that the first
erection rose slightly above her’s & cut off
a minimum of light Work has at last com:
:menced on shaping the scree in the garden
and I hope in a weeks time we may find ourselves
in peace! This has been a most disagreeable
autumn with most unusually cold & stormy
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