The Borders could handle a wee bit more love: while no one wants the place to be like the Lake District, a-bustle with elderly couples in brightly coloured clothing, a slight increase in appreciation would be acceptable. Flown over, passed through, not much visited, the Borders (by which is meant the cross-border region comprising Berwickshire, Roxburgh, Selkirk and Peebles, and north Northumberland) is scarcely known for what it is, a land not only hooching with history and presently strong — keeping its young — but also astonishingly, ever-changingly, easy on the eye. Thanks to Mother Nature’s intricate palette (the soft colours given focus by the zinging tone of the coo-hides) and geology — that fine secrecy of rivers — and careful land management, and the sudden birds, the land looks sensational.
