Just like home!

We took the train to Galashiels today. This Borders Railway connects Edinburgh with several station en route to the end of the line at Tweedbank. Originally the so-called Waverley Route was completed in 1862, linking Edinburgh with Carlisle, but was closed in the Beeching cuts in 1969. It's a long story, but in the late 1990s a campaign was begun, which ended with the rebuilding of the line, mostly on its original course, as far as Tweedbank. There's talk of rebuilding it all the way to Carlisle, but who knows!

Anyway we got off at Galashiels as Mrs M and Daughter Two wanted to see 'The Great Tapestry of Scotland' museum -  https://www.greattapestryofscotland.com/ - but I set off to visit Old Gala House,  a museum with various aspects of Galashiels on display and apparently a lovely garden. I can't deny, and here I'm wearing my 'Grumpy Old Man' hat, that I was disappointed to find that the well-known tourist town, with such a connection to Sir Walter Scott, had a number of very familiar features. These included litter in the streets and gardens, overflowing rubbish bins, sticker-covered signposts, pavements edged with weeds, untended public gardens and bird-shite festooned public sculptures! On a positive note, down a lane behind some houses I spotted this colourful garden, maybe not everyone's idea of horticulture, but bright and cheerful nevertheless!

After a few wrong turnings I eventually found Old Gala House and got into conversation with a group of men who identified themselves as belonging to 'Gala in Bloom'. So totally fed up with the council's neglect of the Gala House garden, to say nothing of the other public gardens in the town, they formed a group to sort out the problem which saw them adding the railway station to their list. No time here to tell the whole story, but it gave me a boost and a determination to try to do the same for Oban! One day, perhaps!