Crossing the border
We had a lovely audience for our first visit to Scotland with Sylvia on Thursday 8 March.
With snow drifting waist-high the previous weekend, we arrived to find we had a trial by flood water before we crossed the border, but there were no unexpected dips or pot holes, so we did get through without any real problem. The countryside was beautiful – woods and hills high-lighted by the melting snow. Part of the journey we will do again, as we are performing at Wooler on 9 March, across the border in Northumberland, though the idea of coming back along that road in the dark is a worry – I think we may go the long way round on better roads. [We did! We went back via Coldstream and Kelso.]
Yetholm is a lovely place, or rather places! It is split into Kirk Yetholm, where we are staying at the Border Hotel (the photo shows the view), and Town Yetholm, where we performed at the Wauchope Hall. Wauchope, I discovered, is actually pronounced more like ‘wackup’, so I got some blank looks before being corrected. The people are really friendly, and their favourite remark seems to be “Not a problem!”.
Just before the performance started, we had a power cut. Nobody was fazed by it – apart from a protest that this never happens in Town Yetholm.
This tour seems determined to be full of surprises, and we are just wondering what will happen next. We had the cancellation at Wolverhampton on 2 March because of the snow, and then the rescheduling of that performance on 12 March. We had fog as we crossed the Pennines, but none of it has held us up so far.
While we have been on the road, we have also had two new enquiries about booking Sylvia in the autumn, and so watch this space or join our mailing list to get updates on where we will be next.
