Ooh I love a man in uniform!

A couple of weeks ago, up in Kelso, Scotland, we were lucky enough to see a  little bit of pomp and ceremony. I'd been scanning through the local paper and saw that on the Saturday,  the Household Cavalry were going to troop through the town and present a guard of honour for a wedding in the town square.  Now, I love horses and a man in a shiny uniform isn't half bad to look at too and the combination of BOTH in one venue was too good an opportunity to miss!
We arrived shortly before it was all to begin and could see most of the locals had the same idea, as people were streaming into the town up all the streets. Himself drove on, to find us some closer parking (I'd only hurt my knee the day before) but as we got closer to the centre the more parked up the streets and parking zones became. Himself tried again to find a slot and with one eye on the clock he managed to manoeuvre our car through the now massing throngs and double parked vehicles. He suddenly saw a street with no parked cars, turned into it and then we were met by rows and rows of cones and police! We'd turned onto the route the horses were going to take! He drove quickly along the length, conscious all the time that any moment now we could be confronted by a unit of mounted soldiers. At the end of the road a mini roundabout allowed us to escape when one of the boys caught out the back of his eye - the Household Calvary coming up the very road we had just left! We leaped out of the car (ok - ok, I hopped) and were met by this rather handsome sight

We hadn't realised that the local tradition of the 'Kelso Laddie' and his left and right hand men would lead the parade. So the three young men at the front were a delightful but stark contrast to the unit behind.  These three (and in particular the young 'Laddie' on the right) whooped and cheered at all the lasses - knowing a fair few by name, these girls (and some of them quite mature ladies I hasten to add!!) took pictures and waved and whooped back. They rode their beautifully turned out horses in a fairly relaxed upright position, often hand casually resting on thigh while sporting huge grins. The military men behind however were ramrod straight, not a muscle moved, not even sure they even blinked. Their immaculate horses were so shiny and black that you could probably see your face in their hooves!
I took photos frantically as my hobbling couldn't keep up with the walking horses.

We stood a moment and watched when I noticed that there was one more 'participant' to this glorious show of history and tradition.......... the road sweeper.
A BRIGHT YELLOW NOISY road sweeper followed not 10 metres behind. The driver, a wonderfully tattooed gent with his arm resting on the window, drove behind slowly picking up any horse manure - of which we noticed very little. I was a little put out by this mundane probably council driven clear up - particularly the noise, it did spoil it a bit, no it spoiled it a lot - as the road sweeper was driving at my hobble speed and I could not over take it and leave its noisy presence behind.

Once in the town, there were so many people doing exactly what we were doing that we didn't get a good view, Youngest did try for a spell sitting on Himself's shoulders and take photos for me but most of them I have had to delete as there were some crazy angles and most were blurred. There were loads of cameras out - both amateur and professional. The local television company were set up with high rise cameras on a boom that soared over our heads - I want one!

We hung around a bit, then decided to leave where a huge cheer occurred and we realised that the wedding party had come out (not that we could see) and then after performing the guard of honour, the mounted unit  marched out again (with that dratted bright yellow sweeper right behind!)

I managed a few more snaps - not brilliant ones but still very good reminders of a good day :)

And the sweeper? - well he better be in the picture too - he was there and he did do his job (just wish he hadn't been so NOISY and so YELLOW!!)

Well enough waffling, got things to do, places to be and breakfast to eat!

Have yourselves a lovely day - and if you hadn't noticed - its FRIDAY!! So have yourselves a happy sunny weekend where ever you are :)

hawthorn xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx