IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
High Road, GALASHIELS, TD1 2BD

The view across the town from the top of Bank Street Brae. The immediate buildings are in Bank Street, while the red sandstone houses in the middle distance (and still in the square) are in the High Road, on the other side of the River Gala. Blaikie's Hill is in the background.

The foxglove (digitalis purpurea) is very attractive but poisonous, with purple tubular flowers hanging from a single stem. Vernacular names for this flower include, fairy gloves, fairy bells, floppy dock and tod-tails. (Source: Flora Britannica by Richard Mabey).

The snail was photographed in my garden during the Coronavirus lockdown.

I found this white glazed bullnose brick in my garden. J & R Howie Ltd was founded in 1857 at the Hurlford Fire Clay Works near Kilmarnock, East Ayrshire.

I found this old white glazed brick marked J & M Craig Ltd, Kilmarnock, in my garden.

I photographed this sparrowhawk in my back garden through a closed window. It’s been around for a couple of weeks now and it sometimes makes a high speed pass at the bird feeders.

This female house sparrow is extracting seeds from a pampas grass plume. Every year between 30 and 40 sparrows descend on the 2 clumps of pampas grass in my garden to feed on the ripening seeds. This can be very entertaining as sometimes 3 or 4 birds can land on a single stalk and bounce up and down.

The 4 large eye-spots on the upperside make this butterfly easy to recognise, and it is named after these eye-spots which resemble those on the tail of a peacock. This slightly ragged specimen is catching some evening sunshine on a sandstone pillar.

This 1910 red sandstone villa with a southwest aspect occupies an elevated position on the northeast side of the town. The garage was built in the late 1950s when planning restrictions at that time resulted in having to set the garage back 16 feet (4.88m) from the pavement line. The garage is built under the access path and front lawn. A property nearby had to comply with the same regulation, although all garages erected in the High Road afterwards were allowed to be built from the back line of the pavement.

That's my car in the foreground, well and truly snowed in and staying put for now. About 300mm of snow fell overnight and caused havoc on the roads. The local bus service was cancelled and I was unable to get into work. For a view of my house and front garden in more clement weather conditions, see Image