Saturday 9 May.
A rather dreich day at our new venue at Shiplaw Farm just north of Eddleston. Derek Walker, who also owns the nearby farm at Darnhall, welcomed us, in between feeding his sheep, and claimed he hadn’t been out of his waterproofs – since August (not sure which year). I took John Doohan and Coolie (the dog) with me; then Steve from Lauder and Dave turned up. Unfortunately Donald’s car broke down and he had to call off. We formed two small squads to take down 2 or 3 sections of farm dyke round a small field near the house. The weather eventually improved and we managed to complete our task before getting away about 3.00 (John and me, for family reasons) though the others stayed on a bit longer.
Coolie was a welcome guest, as far as Derek was concerned, though he got tied to the fence for most of the time. John took the bus down to Shiplaw and did some other repairs later in the week on his own account, as practice for dyking work on the small farm his family has in Donegal.
(Maybe pics to follow)