Our penultimate weekend together was just around the corner. He took me up to the river Avon. We walked into the small town he grew up in and was very fond of. It really was a nothing place, a blink and you missed it. But given that he was never there and he was clearly very close to his Family, it was completely understandable. There was no doubt that the town was perched on the River Avon, an area of unspoilt beauty and I was pleasantly surprised how beautiful it was. It was such a pleasant walk. We came across a wooden kissing gate, leading into a wheat field, that was ripe and ready for harvesting. I stopped. "You have to kiss me!"
"Eh?" he said. He obviously didn't know about the tradition of a kissing gate.
"Here," I said, "I'll show you." As he reached the gate I stretched over the top and puckered up. He reciprocated. He came through the gate.
"We have to cross through here to get to the river." He explained.
I started to walk around the periphery of the field so as to not damage the wheat. The ears were high and uniformly gold brown. Before we reached the woodland adjacent to the river, he kissed me. He grabbed my hand and pulled me down carefully on top of him. I let out an impromptu laugh in surprise. I joined him and we both gazed up at the sky. It was odd as I couldn't help worrying that someone might walk past. After all we'd just passed through a public walkway. The wheat was springy and smelt of grass as it rustled gently. It wasn't the most comfortable bed, but I went with it. It was the mixture of being somewhere not so conventional that heightened the thrill and it had been so unexpected.
We lay there and he chewed on a stem of wheat. The air was fresh and a light breeze teased my nose.
Ali said after some time, "So I'm going back to Berlin soon."
"It's soon come around hasn't it?" I said.
"Aye, too fast. I was thinking you could take a long weekend and we could head up to Iona."
"How far is it?" I asked.
"Well it's a drive. The Scottish Kings are buried there. My pals and I went there last time and ended up sleeping in the church."
"How come?"
"Well we missed the last ferry home and it was either sleep on the beach or on the floor in the Abbey."
Was there no B&B to stay in?"
"We'd spent all the money in the pub. The minister wasn't for letting us in."
It was classic Ali.
"You know I love you don't you?" He said.
"Yeah, I know you can't help it!" I laughed.
"I never felt this way about Charlie you know." he paused, went quiet and I could see on his face that he was obviously giving something some thought.
"You sound like you've never really been in love before when you say that. You must have had some feelings for her at some point." I said philosophically.
He replied, "we never made love, we just had sex" which referred to Charlie and him. Too much information! There are times when we have to get things out of our system. However there are times when you wish folk would keep their thoughts to themselves.
We then got up and carried on with our walk down to the river's edge.
"I used to come here when I was younger, all the time and swim." It was more of a paddle than swimming day. We walked along the banks and then headed back to the house.
"The kettle's on, do you want one?" His Father shouted from the kitchen as I took my shoes off in the hall.
"Yes please, Mr McGregor." I replied.
"So where did you go?" He asked.
Ali replied, "We just went for a walk by the Avon." Ali's Father came through with a tray of teas and set the tray down on the table.
"Thank you!" It tasted good, I was ready for one. "That was perfect timing!" I smiled.
I probably got more from talking to his Father than Ali, if I was honest. He was surprisingly well read, especially when it came to Scottish History. He had passed on many opinions to Ali clearly. I like a man who can think for himself. It was apparent they shared the opinion they had been wronged by the English rule "and oppression".
Ali's Father started, "I was down by the Avon, walking the dog one day. It was a long time ago." When Ali's Father talked he was a skilled orator and knew how to catch and hold your attention. "I've walked that way so many times before but this time the dog ran off and I followed him. The strange thing was we came across this waterwheel attached to a mill. I had never seen it before. I caught up with the dog and we walked back. It was by the bridge."
"Oh yes," I said, "we walked over that today."
"The mill is not there anymore." He said. "It was a one off sighting of it."
"I am sure you were shown it for a reason." I think that answer from me was a tad unexpected. He looked at me curiously.
Ali came into the room with a sandwich for us both.
"Thank you!"
"So," he said through the munching and tucked the crust in his mouth. When the three of them were talking I could hardly understand a word.
"So Iona next week, I've booked accommodation for us."
"Great!" I said. "Should be good!"
"It's beautiful up there" Ali's Father told me. "We tell the English that the weather is awful and there's nothing up here to see. It's our best kept secret and also our best line of defense to keep them out!" He said.
"But when it rains, it rains!" I replied.
Having partaken in the odd real ale tipple, I do appreciate and I'm partial to the odd real ale. I'm a Yorkshire lass after all. I like the labels (the design, typography, illustratons and foil decoration) and the artisan aspect of the beers. When I was a student I did go to the odd CAMRA event (Campaign for real ale). There's a rather special ale called Traquair House. My reason for mentioning it was that Ali told me was that there was a folk festival on and we should go.
"Let's take Mark." Mark was Ali's brother.
It took roughly 1.5 hours. The drive was very scenic. I made a quick stop in Biggar and we picked up sweets from a little old sweet shop. Those, I pretended were for Mark but I loved sherbet lemons and cola cubes. He introduced me to Sour plooms and I picked up some pontefract cakes (Ali's Dad loved them and he always said "Pontefract Caaakes" in a pseudo broad Yorkshire accent.) He had a relative that lived not too far from me in Leeds. Peebles was gorgeous too and very busy. It was a picturesque town set on the river, with quaint bridges and an old town layout. The stone was all traditional, with contemporary and uniformly built houses, shops and pubs. I made a mental note to stop there on the way back. We passed by Innerleithen and ended up following signs to Traquair. Ali was in great spirits and it was pleasant to watch his brotherly care with Mark. There was a big age gap of 13 years between them.
I drove into the estate and was directed to a field. We parked on the grass. There were so many other cars lined up in rows. It was baking hot. I picked up the snacks that I had brought, and the sweets, just to keep us going. They had stuck to the bag with the heat and I got a mouthful of sherbet and bag paper! We walked towards the house. The path was flanked with children's rides and Mark asked if he could go on one. It was a circular frame that he got strapped into. He got spun around 360 degrees and squealed with delight as it spun him merrily around. Ali and I laughed at him and he came off the ride smiling, and a bit dizzy! He staggered precariously for a short while. There was children's archery, and the day out was ideal for Mark.
Folk were lying on the grass in groups, surrounding a water feature. They were singing along and a lot looked like they'd walked out of a hippie festival. There were demonstrations - someone was a fletcher and we watched him feathering arrows. A blacksmith hammered at a forge, and even a man pumped at a foot lathe and sent clippings of wood into the sky with his lathe tool, carving away at a spindle that was taking shape. Looking across a real mish mash of eclectic stalls. I hovered around the jewellery and bought some little stud earrings. We picked up some chocolate coated radioactive looking bonfire toffee for Ali's parents. I was happy to find a stall selling Traquair House ale so I picked up several bottles of that and squirrelled it away in my rucksack. A tour running of the house, which was absolutely beautiful. It was free access. But the music, and the stalls and the crafts, were fantastic. It was like a collection of pre festival adverts. A man walked by dressed in a top hat and stilts. We passed a juggler. Mark was mesmerised. it was a fabulous day, never to be forgotten. Mark had a wonderful time and I acknowledged that he rarely got to spend time with the big brother that he looked up to. It was a special day for him too. Sadly it was of its time and it doesn't run anymore which is a crying shame.
There were music stages set up and so we found a free spot on the grass and settled ourselves down with ice creams and relaxed. The sun was warming and everyone was attentive to the band. The audience were friendly and openly smiling.
"I'd like to have a wander around the house. Shall I meet you back here?" I asked.
"Yep, we'll be here." Ali sat with a beer with Mark, who had some sweets that he picked up now and again, looking into the bag and was thoroughly enjoying it.
I headed to the gardens. From a young age I had been fascinated by mazes and the house had a particularly fine one, dominating the garden. My parents used to take me to Temple Newsam House as we lived nearby and that is where my history lessons started with the connection to Lord Darnley and Scotland. I had been introduced to the china in the house through school, as well as fine paintings. All these aspects had really resonated with me over the years. Exploring Traquair was a true delight. The outbuildings were also opened up for the day and there were crafts demonstrations and mini workshops going on. It was all so interesting. It was wonderful to have the opportunity to explore so many places which ordinarily, I wouldn't have access to. I could have spent hours just around the house but I thought I had better watch the time and go back to them.
We left mid afternoon, and stopped in Peebles. The 'Crown Hotel' appealed to me. It was late Victorian, had Tudor colouring with Old English lettering spelling out it's name. I looked at the menu, "This will do nicely!" I said, and we walked in. We were shown through a door into the eatery area. They had vegetarian food and we ordered a burger for Mark.
"You're going to end up looking like a burger." Ali said to his brother. He looked at me and said, "He won't eat anything else." Mark didn't care. He was hungry and munching through it with gusto.
Ali had a pint of Guinness with his steak. I couldn't imagine him eating vegetarian food with me like Dionisis.
Filled up and recharged we headed back to Ali's home.