At last-a return to the blog and well overdue it is! In Duns it is easy to sink into lazy routines ignoring the big Issues which must be faced, including it seems says the Berwickshire, the dualling of the A1 which is still single carriage way for much of its passage in Northumberland and Berwickshire. Actually it is arguably time to forget the A1 and to dual the notorious B6461 and tne Fishwick By-Pass.


What has the apple tree in the Old Manse got to do with all this I hear you cry. Very Little but it is such a nice image I thought I should share it with you

Labels: Apple trees, B6461, Old Manse

  ¶ 2:08 PM (3) comments

  Lots of Swallows Don't Make a Summer
is Borders Saw # 421



I am grateful to the new owners of the Old Manse for this image of young swallows taken in the little summer house on the back patio from where Huttonian used to shoot rats in the wood pile-those were the days as you can see here (scroll down)But it is glad to know that the Swallows (and these are swallows) returning to old haunts. There is little we can do for them in the Small-House-in-Duns apart from admiring the way they avoid low flying aircraft. Apparently these two little chicks tucked up in their dry mud double cot are the last of the litter-the others are away and preparing to fly south to sunnier climes.

If any

The new Old Mansers have thought of an ingenious way of getting rid of rats from the woodpile.

They have got rid of the woodpile.

I never thought of that

Labels: Borders Summers, Old Manse, Rats in the wood pile, Swallows

  ¶ 11:57 AM (0) comments

 
The Hutton Effect

Here we were in Duns moaning about the appalling weather and all nostalgic for the lazy hazy summer days of a Hutton summer, dry and balmy as the rain poured down on the Paxton road just beyond the 30mph limit. We are now slightly more reconciled to our new habitat thanks to the current Old Manseians who have very kindly sent Huttonian this image of some of the apple trees partially stripped of fruit and in one case almost uprooted by the fierce winds of last week. All that the feebler Duns hurricane could come up with was removing the metal hood from the steel chimney jutting out of the roof from the wood burning stove and conveying it goodness knows where. No sign in the garden or in the house next door. Fortunately the garden at the S-H-i-D
is very sheltered and our tiny new fruit trees escaped unscathed-both apples still intact on one.

Anyone in greater Duns who comes across the chimney hood and/or scattered remains of Friday's Gurdian blasted out of the recycling bag is welcome to keep the latter

Labels: Hurricane winds, Old Manse, Small House in Duns

  ¶ 9:33 AM (0) comments

  Get me to the Post in time



Huttonian paid his first visit to the Mobile Post Office -Hutton Branch-yesterday. It comes hot tyre from Coldstream for one hour 12 to 1 on Mondays and Fridays disrupting, one assumes, some pensioners' dinner times. One old friend was being served when I arrived so I had to wait in the Hutton chill while she was being served-only one customer in the van at a time for 'security reasons' This could be a problem on wet and windy days especially if a queue builds up and one solution would be to open the adjacent village hall during post office times (It wasn't yesterday) Nor was there much sign of customer demand-I saw one other pensioner in the twenty minutes or so (out of the hour the van is there) so I wonder if the come and get it facility but you have got to hurry is been given something of a cold shoulder.

The van itself is hi-tech with a gsm mobile phone type connection for on line transactions. Its shiny new and with a more or less full time post mistress/driver (It serves three other locations and the pm/d is part of the Coldstream PO not yet closed but I suspect living on borrowed time.

AS I helped the sole other customer down the rather difficult steps at the end of the van I asked her if she missed the old post office-'Desperately' she said and especially when it was in the Old Manse. 'That was fun' she said 'On the kitchen table and all'

Indeed; even if it sometimes meant licking the marmalade* and brushing the crumbs** off the bottom fiver of your pension.

I bought 4 packs of First Class stamps.

A Hutton record I believe.

(* Post Mistress responsibility. ** Pensioner's ditto)

Labels: Hutton Post Office, Mobile Post Office, Old Manse

  ¶ 9:53 AM (5) comments

  Post Code Clottery

The old question of the TD15 postcode and the inability for highheidyins to realise that some of it is in Scotland and not in England has raised its ugly head once more as you can read here Obviously the temperatures taken in mild sea side Berwick were not cold enough to justify cold weather payments for the denizens of Foulden, never mind Hutton where the temperature inside the Old Manse seemed to be well under 1C for weeks on end or at least visiting relis used to claim shivering in three layers of fleece. And there appears to be another error, as yet unnoticed in the Berwickshire We inhabitants of the Small House in Duns despite well over two weeks of sub zero temperatures as certified at the weather station in Greenlaw have yet to receive our extra 25 smackers. And this is TD11, all Scottish.

I feel very sorry for the guy in Foulden whose Greenhouse registered -1C throughout the qualifying period with no monetary compensation. My advice, for what it is worth (perhaps even £25)is, unless he lives in an Old Manse, to abandon the greenhouse

and move indoors.

And bully for the Berwickshire. This story is about an anomaly and not an

issue.

Labels: Cold weather payments, Old Manse, Small House in Duns, TD15

  ¶ 12:21 PM (2) comments

 

Dun(s) Roamin; revisted

In the Old Manse of Blessed Memory we used to enjoy the 'Hutton Effect'. Pouring in Paxton, crashing down in Chirnside, bucketing in Berwick-bone dry in TD151TS. Often coming into the village, immersed in a deluge there would suddenly be a line on the road-puddles one side, desert like the other. Now we have the Dunsclimit. Dry in Allanton and Preston, balmy in Ellemford and hissing down here. Even up Dun Law where the Convenantors picnicked it can be glorious and the Market Square, below, covered in recently arrived Cats and Dogs. Dunsclimit as a rare example of the Micro Climate in action-if it was slightly warmer we would be hacking our way through Rain Forest en route to the newsagents every morning. For Hutton sunshades and dining al fresco, Duns machetes and wipe your feet before breakfast.

No matter; the small house in Duns is snug; in a secret sheltered space, double glazed, low ceilings and the rain a pleasant drumming on the porch roof. No more the howling Westerly gales which made conversation in the Old Manse a top of your voice affair. Hutton dry : yes; cold ? no; frigid, yes.

Me I'll take the rain.

Anytime

(Yes, Twitcher of Teeside, those white containers are for bird food (no room inside the house), yes we are covered in feeding stations, nothing changed there-as someone remarked it seems that your new home is

strictly for the birds )

Labels: Duns, Hutton, Old Manse, Small House in Duns

  ¶ 11:55 AM (0) comments

 
Last Post


The period of farcical 'consultation' is over and we have the official confirmation: Hutton Post Office is to close and will be replaced by a 'mobile outreach service' (Don't bother us with facts, any inconvenience is regretted, you know it makes sense). Another community institution is to go. I must say that when we had the post office in the Old Manse, paying out the pensions over the kitchen table amongst the remains of breakfast ( A £20 note with a couple of cornflakes attached is still legal tender, we were assured) I did wonder how long the blue suited accountants would tolerate such an anachronism. I can vividly remember the official gabbling into his mobile when he had come to 'measure up' the kitchen for the computer (replacing the ledger, grocery scales and hand date stamp with the 00 of 2000 missing- our own millennium bug) ' Yes its a Post Office-in a Kitchen!.On the Table, for crying out aloud...No bullet proof screen!...no counter...no queuing strip.....two mornings a week..never more than 15 customers on Mondays..and three on Thursdays... Pensioners.. Yes they actually want to see their money!quite incredible. Quaint really'

And the great battle we had over asking the techies to put the computer on a trolley so it could be wheeled away after 'office hours' to give us back some living space. PO regulations allowed us only 18 inches of 'computer flexibility' (for 'technical reasons') so we had to live around it.

Once the Post Office was sited in the Village Hall it was less basic, could offer more services and was more convenient, especially for the elderly no longer having to trek up the muddy, potholed Kirk Lane. But wherever it was it remained a village centre where pensioners could meet friends, chat and take their time over small transactions (rarely involving the purchase of First Class Stamps)Now it will be (from the New Year) either hanging around for the 'mobile outreach'-12 to 1 Mondays and Fridays-dinner time so how thoughtful, or going 7 miles into Berwick to queue at length and having in many cases relying on some one else to take you in; the bus service being so limited.

Any Inconvenience Regretted?

I doubt it.

(The image is of the Old Manse, Post Office included-on the other side)

Labels: Hutton Post Office, Old Manse

  ¶ 9:47 AM (1) comments

  Duns! Here we come? Perhaps

D Day minus 7



The work on the extension has not started!The wood burning stove is still somwhere but not where it is needed. Like in our small house in Duns. Ditto the associated piping. The decoration is just under way and it will not be finished in time

The Old Manse is a shambles.

And its next Monday we are talking about.

A week may be a long time in politics. But in a hyper spatial move time blackhole

Its a blink of the eye

HELP

Labels: Moving house, Old Manse, Small House in Duns

  ¶ 11:24 AM (3) comments

  The White Van's Burden


Huttonian washing hanging out the washing as one does in the Merse when it is too hot to do anything else-wrap yourself in one wet sheet and hang up the others -magic-when a White Van man arrived in search of Honeysuckle Cottage. His Tom Tom had lead him to Hutton-all the village shares the one postcode, and then he had spent half an hour looking for the cottage which is a former outbuilding in our 'compound' He apparently could not find anyone alive(and out of doors) in the village to ask in our post post-prandial heat induced stupor (it was 76F, honest) and when he did made the mistake of using the word Manse; which one? the former one?, the future one?, the Old one?etc etc. Honeysuckle due a blank but as he was about to return to Selkirk he met one of our neighbours who personally escorted him up Kirk Lane to Honeysuckle Cottage. Mission successful and he left Hutton hotter but less bothered than when he had arrived.

The image is of a white van turning circle. May be part of the Fishwick Bypass. Our man to day could have done with one as it took him ten minutes to reverse down Kirk Lane with several false starts

Labels: Fishwick Bypass, Honeysuckle Cottage, Old Manse, White Van Drivers

  ¶ 4:03 PM (0) comments

  A Scream is only a click away


Below is the response which Huttonian got to a request made via 'when you are really stuck e-mail for help facility' on the Scottish Power website. It was to do with signing off our two cottages attached to the Old Manse in favour of the new owners, reading the meters-you know that sort of rocket science. The website was unable to help as it refused to accept the meter readings, the help link didn't nor did the FAQs (Ours had not been asked frequently enough apparently) and I gave up after 45 minutes of classical music on the not-quite-freefone to Scottish Power-your call is important to us-but not important enough to actually answer.

Dear Mr ***** (the name of a long gone tenant)

Thank you for your email.

You can telephone 0845 2700 700 and leave your readings on the automated

machine.

Further help is always available at http://www.scottishpower.co.uk . For more

information, go to the 'Help' link at the top right hand side of your screen.

Did you know that ScottishPower was recently voted top for Best Online Services

in uSwitch's bi-annual customer satisfaction survey?*



So as well as great prices we offer the best online service too! Why not go to

http:www.scottishpower.co.uk

Your deepest wish will be satisfied

And bring your partner

(* one wonders who was the worst)

And I added the last two lines but it is the thought that counts

Labels: Help Lines, Old Manse, Scottish Power

  ¶ 11:28 AM (0) comments

  I doubt if our resident Partridges will follow us to Duns although they might be safer in our secluded wee garden there once the Guns of August get going. Mind you, with these two and the group of Pheasants who also take advantage of the Wife's hospitality we might well have a little shoot across our extensive lands before we move on. And if we could include the family of rats who have taken up residence in the wood pile that might add an extra dimension to a traditional shoot for any passing stockbroker.

We will also leave our two pear trees behind-not that the Partridges seem particularly interested.

Perhaps at Christmas?

If they survive until then

Labels: Old Manse, Partridges, Shooting Season, Stockbrokers

  ¶ 9:44 AM (0) comments

  A House, not called Manse, please

The area is swarming with Old Manse's, three of which are still on sale in Berwickshire-as far as I know, ours, in Hutton, is the only one actually sold; or technically 'under offer'. With the departure of an incumbent minister, there is a another ministerial pad on the market, also in Hutton. This is the Manse. Strictly speaking 'The Former Manse' So we have the Former Manse, down town, a snip at about £370,000, but yet to be snipped up, and the Old Manse, behind the Kirk, where Manses normally are. In Paxton, two miles away, is another Old Manse, once the residence of the Wee Free Minister. If you put Old Manse in the Royal Mail post code finder, TD15, out will come Paxton. Ours, having been called Antrim House for many years since it was demansified does not yet register. Bloggees will recall our battle to reclaim the Old Manse name (by which it has been long known in the village) and we only could do so when the Church of Scotland surrendered its Feu with the abolishment of the Feu (Feudal) system in this country three years ago. The post man knows this but Royal Mail has yet to update its data base.

If we ever get a full time incumbent Minister he or she will have to be housed. The Old Manse is gone, the Former Manse will surely have been sold, so any new residence will presumably be the Manse. Ah joy unconfined: A surge of Manses: the Manse, the Former Manse, the Old Manse (aka Antrim House) And if the new owners change the name of this house, well then, what fun that will be.

'Can I help you?

'I am looking for the Manse?

'Do you mean, The Old Manse, formerly known as Antrim House, now called ' Formerly-in-Allanton Lodge' or the Former Manse, which used to be the Manse after Antrim House was no longer the Manse?. Or do you mean the new Manse, which used to be called 12 Knowe's Close?

'Is this Paxton?

'No its Hutton. Ah you probably You want the Old Manse in Paxton-unless its the Old Schoolhouse -and right here in Hutton we have an old Smiddy and a former pub, and an Old School...'

Exit White Van Man screaming.

Labels: Antrim House, Former Manse, Hutton, Old Manse

  ¶ 12:30 PM (4) comments

 

Are we mad? I wonder. The sun is warm, the sky a hazy blue, everything in the garden blooming, the tadpoles in the pond humming with contentment and the Old Manse basking in the glow of a Borders sun. Give this all up for a small, dare I say, poky, house, with a small garden, in a nice but unremarkable town? With a close up view of surrounding buildings rather than a never ending horizon with homo sapiens nowhere to be seen. Only gentle coos, carpe dieming like crazy.

Are we mad?

I refer the Honorable Gentleman to the reply I gave a few posts before.

And I better resume my seat before I change my mind

Labels: Moving house, Old Manse, Small House in Duns

  ¶ 10:02 AM (5) comments

 



I don't know how they did it as the Frogs have been notable by their absence these last few days but suddenly the pond is full of spawn, bubbling away and in some cases looking a bit like primeval jelly fish. This is by far the furthest into 'spring' that the ejaculated sago has appeared -31st of March was the previous latest date for that.

As for the proud dads they seem to have gone to ground-sleeping the sleep of the exhausted amongst the Daffodils. But I think we can say that Spring has really come despite the forecast for yet more frost and snow later on tonight.

Labels: Frogs, Hutton Spring, Old Manse, Spawn

  ¶ 11:50 AM (0) comments

 
Sweet Smell of Spring

There's a fine brownish haze on the meadow its not from corn as high an elephant's eye but thickly laid excrement aka slurry. The meadow is due north, just beyond the old Glebe field and a soft northern wind is wafting in a sweet aroma, which once into your nostrils tends to stay there like Tom Cat territory marking fluid.And with a northerly airstream forecast for the next few days, the music may die but the melody will linger on. And on.

In the meanwhile the in house mouses are already, it seems, starting their preparations for a long cold summer. I had wondered why the wife's store of nuts for No 6 bird feeder was so depleted. The Mices, presumably worried about the possible effects of global financial meltdown have filled the feet of two pairs of wellies with luscious brown (the colour of the month) peanuts. Very full. This has involved them climbing up two shelves of the boot rack,then up the boots, depositing a nut or two and then climbing down again, back into the kitchen for more, and so on. Who says Mouses have no work ethic?

A neighbouring cynic does. He wonders if a three year old visiting granddaughter
might have, if left unattended, done this job. Perhaps indulging herself in a game of imagination and terror? Here we go hiding Nuts in March? An unworthy thought, Sir. A granddaughter of mine! Come on.

I prefer to blame the Meece.

I apologise for the quality of the telephoto image of the Slurry Spreader with the Tractor in Front. Without anti-biological warfare kit ot was impossible to get nearer. Click to see picture in full horrorscope

Labels: Mice. Slurry, Old Manse, Rural smells

  ¶ 10:31 AM (3) comments

 



Question: what is a sign of Spring and happens in Hutton the 16th of March?No, all the daffodils do not come out-unlike southron parts Hutton's Daffs are timorous and reluctant to bloom and who is to blame them in such a piercing northerly wind.

Bloggees with long memories will recall that on the day before St Patrick's Day, last year, Huttonian's pond became the scene of frenzied copulation. And dead on the button, 12 noon, 16th of March 2008 they are at it again.And this is Leap Year*. The images (click on them for full effect) tell some of the story-and one of them is from last March but who is to know? Unlike last year when they were going at it like the Jim Clarke Rally drivers at Bluestane Ford, a great spectator sport, this new generation of frenetic fathers are a modest lot and I needed patience and the skill of a deer stalker to catch them on the surface-one image is of the pond when I clicked a nano second too late to freeze the action.I suspect however when they start into ' I am All Right Ejack'they won't care who is watching and that could be later to day if the pond does not freeze over in the current cold snap.

* Further research on the blog reveals that the Frogs First Frigging took place on the 17th March 2005 but, as late as the 30th two years ago.

PS Leap Year. Usual Caveats Apply as the academics unwilling to commit themselves are inclined to say: Otherwise : No pun intended

Not further proof of Global Warming claims Hutton Think Tank-but just evidence that Frog's calenders are very inaccurate.

Labels: Frogs, Hutton, Old Manse, Spring

  ¶ 1:59 PM (0) comments

 
Patience on a Monument

No not about extreme card games but yet another penalty of a rural existence-waiting for the bleeding carrier. This time it is our contribution to carbon neutrality :a cast iron push-if-not-sing-along-mower. Made in the UK. No Chinese rubbish and no 12,000 air miles. Not much use in the broad hectares of the Old Manse garden where one mow of our meadows empties the petrol tank of a large motor mower and a hand mow would be a painting the Forth Bridge job, but ideal for the Small House in Duns. Unusually the company-www.cheapmowers.com or similar not only offered free carriage but also a number to call to arrange the delivery on the day that suits you. I rang. Agreed Monday. Morning or Afternoon? Sorry carrier can only agree the day. If out he can leave the mower in the boiler room by the back door. Sorry, no can do. Signature required. But..oh free delivery. Agree.

Monday wore on. Lovely sunny day. Risk 9 holes? Better not and the wife has to go out anyhow. Better hang around. Phone rings 'TNT here' Asks for directions to the Old Manse. Give them. Ask TNT is they are using a smallish vehicle because of Kirk Lane and its bad bend. 7.5 Tons they say. 'Could have a problem' I say. Might be difficult to reverse up or back down.. Suggest unloading at bottom of lane and trolleying up. After all very small mower. TNT lady sounds unconvinced. Where is the driver now? No idea but he will phone if he has problems.

No Problems as no phone? Alas. No show.

Today www.verycheapbutundeliverablemowers.com unobtainable. E-mail bounces and answer machine user unfriendly. Customer Satisfaction department on half term. Thick fog sent by the BBC Blether Centre reducing visibility to weather warning dimensions. Carrier will not find Hutton never mind Kirk Lane.

Can't play golf, can't leave the house. Might as well wait. If the Carrier does not come

Godot might

(It all reminds me of the old Soviet Union tale of a man having ordered a car was suddenly told (after a three year wait) that it was coming year after next. 'Morning or afternoon' He asked and added 'I hope it is the afternoon because the plumber is coming in the morning')

Labels: Godot, Old Manse, Waiting. Hutton

  ¶ 9:55 AM (1) comments

 
Duns Roamin'

One thing we will really miss about the move to the-small-house-in-Duns is the view north from the back of the Old Manse. Especially on a crisp clear sunny February day, with the pond still frozen and a Merse horizon which stretches for ever. The horizon in Duns is confined to the backs of other peoples houses over quite a pretty garden but not as stunning as these broad acres

Labels: Hutton, Old Manse

  ¶ 9:55 AM (0) comments

  We could have done our RSPB Big Garden Bird Watch by counting and classifying the foot prints as seen 8 am this morning after a snowy night. This is our door mat.


The birds are lucky to have the wife around-to defrost their water, put out the seed, top up the nuts dust the snow off the fat ball and anything else which postpones the preparation of Huttonian's breakfast. Strictly for the birds is apt in her case

Left to my own devices I would adopt a different set of priorities.

If they can't drink their bloody water let them enjoy skating on it.

Is what I say

Labels: Feeding the birds, Old Manse, Snow

  ¶ 11:05 AM (2) comments

 
BIG GARDEN BIRD WATCH

This is the week end of the BGBW organised by the RSPB. This is usually part of the wife's portfolio as she is Fauna Gaulieter and Keeper of the Bird Seed. Today she is in Lunnon so I have assumed her mantle with some trepidation not being a twitcher and bad on brown job identification. THe idea is to watch the patio for an hour and record the highest numbers of species you see at one time. Now Robins I can manage (as long as they are male) ditto Wood Pigeons, Starlings,blackbirds, visiting Pheasants and collared Doves. I get a bit lost with Dunnocks and Sparrows, very similar and once I have identified one (from the RRPB's little chart) , it moves and some thing else very similar takes it place. But not to worry. The wife says we get more sparrows than Dunnocks so I counted them all and divided by three to get the Dunnocks-so we have two them-official.

I am also following the wife's Modus Operandi. To ensure a good show and important census return (a) Wait for the Greater Spotted Woodpecker- a regular.Put him down (b) Put out the Bird Seed, nuts, fat ball-double quantity (c) Start the clock (d) Count. (e) if no sparrow hawk turns up within the 60 minute twitch stop clock until it does as Sparrow Hawks look good on the return although its arrival reduces the available to count bird population by about 100%.

So far no Sparrow Hawk but a good show otherwise including a female pheasant, two very large wood pigeons fighting over the nuts, two nice little non brown jobs which I have tentatively identified as Goldfinches and the usual other rather boring suspects.

I'll give the Sparrow Hawk another half an hour. After a bit this bird watching business gets a bit

boring.

(If you click on the image you will be able to see at least 4 feathery things including the No 1 Robin who never seems to leave the lower branches of the wood pile)

Labels: Big Garden Bird Watch, Old Manse

  ¶ 10:48 AM (0) comments