I was married in 2004 at Paxton House next to my beloved River Tweed (to a man in a tweed kilt!). My father, who was a keen fisherman but a very emotional man, felt he couldn’t do a speech, so my two brothers took on the task. They began by explaining that it was entirely appropriate that I was married by the Tweed and went on to compare my life to that of a salmon!
I was born by the river at Castle Hills in Berwick upon Tweed, went to school in Norham and then upstream in Melrose, before swimming out into the wider world to grow at school in Edinburgh, university in Birmingham and a year teaching in Tanzania. But before long the urge to breed drew me back to the river of my birth!
Later, I worked for the Tweed Forum, had my babies in Melrose and moved further upstream to Peebles where I now enjoy swimming in the river and walking in the beautiful hills & woods of the Tweed Valley.
Since childhood I have been deeply connected to the Tweed, from watching the nets being pulled in at Norham, to picnics by the Breamish, canoeing the Till and hopefully one day walking the River Tweed Trail. Thank you for the memories.
