A Family Day..

 

 

On Tuesday the 3rd of June it was my Papa's birthday and obviously it was a hard time for all of my family because for the first time ever, he's not here to celebrate it with us *sob*

We decided to take my Nana away with us (the rest of the family were unfortunately working :( ) on a little day trip to Flodden Fields and across to Jedburgh Abbey and despite the sad occasion, we actually had a really nice time and it helped to keep our minds focussed on other things which we wouldn't have done if we stayed at home on that day.

We started our travels at 8:30am and somehow, it took us over 3 hours to get to Flodden Fields, despite the fact it should only have taken 2 hours at the most. We ended up in Berwick and circled around for a bit until I used my Google Maps and got us back on the right road. All hail Google Maps! 

The climb up to Flodden is quite steep but you can park half way up which helped Nana a lot because her back gets really sore. So we took our time and walked a little bit and rested a little bit to help her - Of all the people I know, my Nana is probably the bravest person I have ever met, she somehow manages to look forward in life and will stop at nothing to try and help herself and others around her, she really is a wee fighter.

For those of you who aren't really into history but want to know a brief bit of what Flodden Fields is then basically, it is where the Battle of Flodden was held in 1513.  As always at that time, us Scots were battling the English and unfortunately for both nations, thousands were killed in the battle, including James IV. For those wondering, in terms of who 'won' - the English did, but in my opinion, there are no winners in war.  Men from both sides died and to me, any death is a tragedy! 

Obviously, there's a lot more to the story but I'm keeping it brief so not to bore y'all!

 Moving on from that, we then travelled for a while and ended up at Jedburgh Abbey.  When I was just a little un' (hard to imagine!) my family and I used to travel Scotland because of one reason... We had no money! haha! travelling abroad was off limits for us and so we took to our own countryside and actually, some of my fondest memories are of those days away where we would just take off in the car and end up somewhere that had a bucket load of history and some gorgeous scenery to top it off.  

One of the places we frequently visited was Jedburgh and we went back to Jedburgh Abbey last week to remind ourselves of the place. This time, I actually really appreciated what an outstanding place it must have been at one time and thanks to Historic Scotland, is well restored and maintained.

The history behind Jedburgh castle is once again a violent one! LOL! Us Scots somehow always managed to get ourselves into some fights! Anyways, the castle was built in 1409 and was fought over in the Scottish Wars Of Independence. Short & sweet recap but really the history is seriously impressive!

We ended the day by having a picnic in a pictuesque area - The carpark of Edinburgh Woolen Mill! haha! we then went inside and my nana did a teeny bit of retail therapy which was well deserved and we went home and ordered a takeaway which you all will know about if you follow me on takeaway #foodregrets - the fish supper (fish and chips/fries depending on where you're from) was the biggest portion I have ever had and I pretty much demolished the lot! 

Anyways, that was what we did to celebrate my Papa's 81st birthday and despite him not being here to celebrate with us, I'm pretty sure he's up there somewhere drinking a large glass of wine.

All My Love...

Holly 

xxxxxxx