A decent day of weather (it was nice to see blue skies for a change); I’m still off work so no reason not to go on a walk. Thornthwaite Crag was one of seven summits reached today, and has what is probably the tallest summit cairn in the Lake District.
Last day in Lisbon, and this was the last thing seen in it, in the first few moments of the plane’s ascent away from the airport. The Vasco da Gama bridge crosses that wide bit of the Tagus estuary that I mentioned yesterday, and at 7.8 miles (12.3km) it is the longest bridge in Europe. Barely a quarter of its length, at a guess, is seen in this shot.
Farewell to Portugal — coming back here has reminded me why I used to like it so much. A fine country, with a lot of characteristics that some more self-important places could learn from (but refuse to).
In need of distraction from the various (minor) personal and (major) political and institutional cock-ups afflicting my life at the moment — so I did what I usually do in these circumstances, took a book to read on the way and got myself up a mountain. On the top of Dollywaggon Pike (2815 feet, or 858m, above sea level), this tableau awaited…. is the stone on top of the bear a kindness, to keep it there until its owner returns? Looks more like a sacrificial altar to me. Still, there are worse places to be exposed to the elements.
After over a week of it raining every day, today — the summer solstice — while not exactly sunny, was at least dry. I had a book needing reading for work, I took it on the trains and went for a short but rewarding walk around the head of Great Langdale. Bowfell, in the background, is 2,960 feet high, and not on the itinerary today, but I did get to the sugarloaf summit of Pike o’Stickle about half an hour after this picture was taken. Note the walkers on the top at this point.
One of England’s best-looking, and also hardest-to-reach corners. I have been doing this blog long enough to have photo locations recur even though it feels like quite a while since I was there, and this is true here — the slopes of Black Combe (the 1970′ above sea level mountain in the background), the Duddon Eastuary, and local fauna, featured on this decent shot taken back in October 2013. Today’s shot was taken from near Foxfield station on the long train journey home: not a bad picture for one taken from a moving train through glass, although there are some reflections visible near the centre if one knows where to look.
Gibson Mill, buried in the heart of the woods of Hardcastle Crags about 2.5 miles from Hebden Bridge town centre, has in its time been a mill, a roller-disco (honestly) and, now, the visitor centre for this National Trust property. This is something of a stock Hebden Bridge shot, but one that has as yet been unseen on this blog. (And seeing as I’m still trying to avoid repetition after 1,740 days, I guess that means it will now be unseen in the future. So make the most of it.)
My weekend was Sunday and today. I still seem willing to get up to the Lake District when I can — it’s been six weeks since my last visit, I was getting itchy. Probably I’ll still be doing it when I’m this guy’s age. After all, with a backdrop like this for one’s life — how can it be wrong? The lake is Derwent Water, the town Keswick, the mountains are all worth the time, if I haven’t convinced you yet to visit this part of the world then you really haven’t been paying attention. (See my other blog for the details of today’s walk, and all the rest of them too.)
Far too lovely a morning to stay in. Fortunately we have these great pieces of countryside short walks from my house. Sping has not yet fully sprung, but it’s getting there.
As its name suggests, Great Gable is the pyramid on the left, and one of the most well-known fells in the Lake District and/or England. Last time I went up it was in foul weather (on 29/7/12) and I am determined to return to it in blue skies, so it was not on my itinerary today — but it was the best looking object on my walk round the upper reaches of the valleys of Borrowdale and Gillercomb. Colder and greyer than it might have been, but I quite like this shot, taken from the nearby summit of Brandreth.
Easter Sunday, and my entry in the Cheesy Chocolate Box cover shot, 2016. The horses know.
Being 42 