A Selkirk housewife spotted a flying saucer last week and came forward to tell The Wee Paper following an earlier sighting in the Ettrick Valley, writes Sally Gillespie.

We reported how waitress Pauline Hemsley had woken to see a big bright light in the hills outside her window. She then appealed to anyone else who saw anything to come forward.

Margaret Hermiston, 54, answered the call after a similar close encounter.

And we have also received reports of strange lights in the sky over Galashiels.

Margaret lives at the top of Kingsland Avenue and had pulled back her blinds last Tuesday at 6.40am to be met with a UFO above the hills on the other side of Selkirk.

"It was just sitting there, this ball. It was like a star but it was quite a bit bigger and extra-twinkly - it was sort of throbbing and sparkly. It looked like a pair of ball diamante earings I had a couple of Christmases ago," she told us.

She watched the ball, which was about 30 feet above the hill she sees from her window, for a few minutes and, deciding she needed a witness, she called to her son Mark.

But by the time he arrived it had faded to a tiny dot and looked like a star, she said.

"I don't know if it faded down or moved away because it didn't lower. It stayed the same height but it went away so fast.

"It fascinated me. I didn't know who to tell. My son suggested the police but they would be thinking 'what's she been on the night before?' - so I didn't tell anybody.

"It's a lovely view from the window but I didn't expect to see that in the morning!"

She said there are often people out 'lamping' in the hills she can see, but it was a different sort of light. And even though she said the town is on a plane route, it was not a plane.

"I watched for maybe three to five minutes. It glistened. It was a quite a clear day and there were stars in the sky ... It's an enigma, it puzzled me all day."

And she has been looking out to try to see it again.

"I would like somebody to tell me what it was."

She added: "I'm like Pauline - I'm not sure about these things. I'm open-minded but I don't believe in little green men and I'd have to see something to convince me."

Earlier this month Pauline saw what she thought was a really bright star above Kipp Hill outside her window at Hawkshaw, near Ettrickbridge.

"But it was too bright, way too big and too low down. It was just hanging there," she said.

The 40-year-old added: "It almost 'flashed' to become a smaller light with a light on either side and then back to its original form before jumping to about 200 yards along the hill.

"I always thought I'd be really scared if I came across anything weirdy but I wasn't bothered. I just snuggled down and thought 'fancy that' and went back to sleep."

Meanwhile, the mystery continues with further reports of sightings in Galashiels this week after Gary Beaumont spotted strange, unexplained lights in the sky above the town.He told us: "I was doing my horse with my mum. I saw a very bright light very low down. No other stars were about and then it was at the other side of me. I told my mum and others several times and then the same happened again the next night."