Happy New Year

It wasn't only dry most of the day but the sun was also to be seen occasionally. A good start to 2013! And it seemed suitable to picture an hour-glass for the occasion as for me it's a reminder to use my time well and do as much as I can while I'm still on this wonderful earth. So the above photograph taking in Innerleithen Graveyard became my blip for today.

I have visited this graveyard before (you can read about that visit here) but John had never been so we took a drive out in that direction. As you can see the graveyard is in a beautiful location with the hills in the background and Leithen Water runs right on the other side of the road from it. I  spend my time looking at gravestones I hadn't paid that much attention to during my previous visit.

This is a Victorian stone, and I'm not sure if it was always this half size or whether the other half has disappeared underground. It's set against the wall and had some amazing carving work

as you can see on this detail.

 
In fact most of the stones in this no longer in use graveyard are in a precarious state leaning every which way and some have fallen over completely or bits of it have.

This is such a one and the details of whose gravestone it was have vanished apart from the name William. The carving is beautiful and I'm guessing this stone dates from the 18th Century. Set in between the spirals is what usually is a symbol of the trade the person was involved in but I'm not sure what this particular symbol looking like helicopter blades (which it definitely isn't!) means. I thought of a ship's propellor but who knows?

Set within the graveyard is a railed enclosure containing gravestones belonging to the Ballantyne family (the name still belongs to a Borders woollen mill although I'm not sure if this is the same family) and this is where I found my hour-glass, on the table stone on the left. This is the grave of Jane Ballantyne as well as Thomas B, esquire of Holylee (died 1797), his wife Grizel Veitch (died 1802) as well as James B, esq of Holylee, died 1824. The date of Jane's death can no longer be deciphered but would be before 1797 as she was buried first.

The graveyard also features the remains of the watch house complete with a little fireplace where a guard would make sure during the night that no body snatchers made off with the recently buried selling the bodies to the medical students in Edinburgh.

We drove back up the B709 where there are some fabulous views of Edinburgh and I tested the zoom qualities of my new camera. You can see Arthur's Seat perfectly in the distance. although we were more than 20 miles away.  I was impressed!

I wish all my readers a very happy and creative 2013!