The Met Office have issued a Severe Weather Warning  'Yellow Warning' for rain and thunderstorms for the Scottish Borders area, in conjunction with this SEPA have also issued a general flood warning for the Scottish Borders.
This weather front is currently causing considerable problems in the south of England and as it moves north the hope is that it will lessen in strength, but we are expected to receive a considerable amount of rainfall, some areas may escape this, but in general the warning is for the whole of the Scottish Borders.  The Council have carried out checks on watercourses and grilles to ensure they are clear, and sandbags can be obtained from your local fire station, or Resilient Communities sandbag store.

Our popular mind and body workout class will continue on Thursday 22 October beginning at 6:45.  At 8:00 we share refreshments and chat! Loose, comfy clothing is best and bring a yoga mat if you have one. The cost remains at £5.00 per class. Good luck with your Salutations to the Sun, everyone.  Contact 880256 for more information.

11 valleys are getting together to sort out the poor internet for themselves. The Borthwick Water Valley is one of them !

We need your help. It takes less than 5 minutes of your time (the irony being "internet permitting").

Here's the long story, shortened.

The Scottish Government have a pool of £40 million to sort out rural broadband issues. It's up to organisations to apply for funding to provide better internet for their communities. We have joined forces with Ettrick and Yarrow, Upper Teviotdale, Tweedsmuir, Moffat Water, Lilliesleaf, Ashkirk & Midlem, Glen, Orchard Mains & Traquair and Eskdalemuir to apply funding to improve our broadband. More Valleys EQUALS bigger (and therefore more attractive) projects for companies to tender for.

Residents of the Borthwick Water Valley may have noticed the big yellow sign advising of road closures on August 9th.

The event website is http://tourotheborders.com/community and it advises that the road closures are well down the B711, and won't affect the Borthwick Water Valley roads themselves.

For info....

A big shout of thanks goes out to everyone who submitted photographs for the Valley Calendar. We had some amazing photos and we feel they've made a great calendar. Photos of the Borthwick Water Valley by people who stay/live  in the valley !

60 Photographs were submitted in total from 11 valley residents and the CDT Directors had quite a challenge picking the final 13 (12 + frontpage) !

We are only having a limited print run of 150, and before we have even received the final hard copies, we have taken orders for 36. So if you would like one or more, please get in touch as soon as possible. They cost £5 and the profits help support the CDT.

If there are any left, they will be going on sale at The Roberton Show in the Valley Wares Tent.

With the increasing heat today comes the risk of heavy showers and thunderstorms through this afternoon and into this evening. There’s the usual uncertainty about when and where these will form, but our current best estimate suggests storms forming in northern England/southern Scotland, and tracking northwards through the late afternoon and evening, clearing to the north overnight. So, at the moment, it’s looking like southern and eastern Scotland are most at risk of seeing localised impacts – not everywhere within these regions will see showers but where they do occur there is the potential to see some localised flooding and also potential impacts from hail and lightning

Jim Fraser, 

Border council, emergency planning officer

The schedule for the Roberton Show is nearing completion and will be shortly going to the Printers, but for all the budding gardeners and craftsfolk who want to get stuck in to their entries for the Show, the new Roberton Show Website has a page that lists all the sections for the Industrial Section.

It's available by clicking on the link below :-

http://www.therobertonshow.uk/node/2

One of the new things that will be happening at this year's Roberton Show (Saturday 5th September 2015) is a Tug Of War competition or a series of them.

Have you got any ideas for what the teams could be ?

If you have, please email secretary@therobertonshow.uk

SSE has today announced plans to sell the 16-megawatt Langhope Rig wind farm situated near Hawick, to GE’s energy investing unit, GE Energy Financial Services. The deal will see ownership and operation of the 10 turbine wind farm, which is currently under construction, transferred to GE when the project completes in spring 2015. Until then SSE will continue to finalise the build until the project is handed over to GE. Our press release on the announcement can be accessed here: http://sse.com/newsandviews/allarticles/2015/03/langhope-rig-wind-farm-a...

Photo taken at Girnwood by Jennifer Warwick.