Francine has a friend who lives about a 30-minute drive away from Moffat. She had arranged that they would come down to meet us, then take us to see something local. They duly arrived at 10:30.
The something local that they elected to introduce us to was Craigieburn Gardens and Nursery. If I’ve got this right, the story goes that many years ago, the lady of the property was in Nepal seeking plants. On the trip she met a Nepalese gardener and somehow encouraged him and his family back to Scotland to plant and look after her garden. Her property is in a modest gorge with a climate that resembled that of Nepal, apparently. It is now open to the public for a £7.50 admission fee and features some exotic plants. There are even prayer flags – it looks the part.
The weather was a little threatening and at one point we did get wet but took some shelter under the trees. There was an energetic dog complete with ball for those of us with short attention spans to entertain. As a non-botanist with said short attention span, here’s a couple of plants that appealed to me. Our friends thought they needed to return with an empty car for some of the plants from the nursery.
‘T was approaching lunchtime and we returned to Moffat in search of a hostelry. Moffat has an intriguing one, The Star Hotel which is, we’re told, the narrowest detached hotel in Scotland. How’s that for a claim to fame? Get specific enough and you can probably get into the Guinness Book of Records for almost anything. [No, I don’t know if it’s in there.] Naturally, the Star Hotel goes back quite a long way. It proved a decent venue for lunch. Their choice of real ale, being one of Morland’s offerings from Oxfordshire, seemed a little unusual in Scotland.
After lunch our friends departed to get on with their lives leaving us to wander around Moffat to explore. We’d visited a real butcher to supplement our supplies and were only just able to do so as it would be closing at the end of May. There was also (or rather wasn’t) a greengrocer with good reviews shown on Google maps which was now missing. A baker was up for sale, too. Perhaps a sad sign of the times.
On a brighter note, at the end of one of the side streets close to the Star Hotel, we stumbled across what is now called Dowding House, formerly St. Ninian’s Preparatory School. This is where Air Chief Marshall Sir Hugh Caswall Tremenheere Dowding was born. [How’s that for a name to conjure with?] His father was headmaster. Hugh Dowding was Air Officer Commanding RAF Fighter Command during the Battle of Britain. I had no idea of this connection prior to our visit. Outside the house, as well as Dowding’s bust, stands a Spitfire; a replica but a very good one.
Time to go and keep Frodo company listening to the Westminster chimes of the local church.
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