Tag Archives: Cumbria

Apr 26 2021
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Daily Post, Landscape

The last picture of Devoke Water?

Sunday 25th April 2021, 1.00pm (day 3,531)

Couple by Devoke Water, 25/4/21

A glorious Sunday in the Lake District. The title of the post has layers of meaning. My walk today (see my Wainwrights blog for the details) involved a circuit of the placid and remote tarn of Devoke Water. It was a feature in multiple photos taken along the way, of which this was the last of the day.

But as I walked back to the car, I mused — is this perhaps the last ever? I have visited some of these marvellous places multiple times as I have gone round and round Cumbria over the last 12 years, but the project will end at some point (next year probably), and after that — will I find an excuse to return?

Some might say, that is in the hands of God/Inshallah/fate/whatever you believe. But in the end, I believe it is up to me. If this blog does make it to, say, day 8,000 — perhaps we will see this place again. I certainly hope so.

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Apr 02 2021
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Daily Post, Family Member, Landscape, Portrait

Joe’s 49th Wainwright

Thursday 1st April 2021, 11.40am (day 3,507)

Joe and Pikeawassa, 1/4/21

Those nice people in Authority have promised not to threaten arrest for doing something as subversive as going on a walk, on one’s own, in countryside that doesn’t happen to reside within spitting distance of home. So Joe and I went out on a walk. I bagged my 600th Wainwright and Joe, his 50th. (Full details soon to be posted on my other blog.) Both those milestones came on Wether Hill, but that is a rather unphotogenic lump — Steel Knotts, its predecessor in each sequence, was rather better. It’s appeared before on the blog, too: pictured from a distance on 6/2/17.

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Oct 16 2020
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Daily Post, Landscape

Ether Knott

Thursday 15th October 2020, 1.15pm (day 3,339)

Ether Knott, 15/10/20

The start of teaching has been delayed four weeks this year, but the summer can’t last forever. This is basically my last three-day gap of freedom before it all kicks in. And in weather like today, I made the most of it — as did the other walker just visible on this shot, below the summit of Ether Knott, a minor protuberance above Borrowdale. Behind, Skiddaw, one of the Lake District (and England’s) 3,000-footers. Boosting one’s immune system is very much the way to go, whatever the lockdowners think.

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Oct 03 2020
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Daily Post, Landscape

Barf, from Lord’s Seat

Friday 2nd October 2020, 10.55am (day 3,326)

The Lake District mountain that is Barf has a very silly name, but it is a rugged little beast and has a great view. Its summit has featured before, as some eight and a half years ago I was up there with the couple who’d brought their grandson’s Action Man along for the ride. With a weather forecast that is significantly deteriorating, I made the most of a chance to rebag it (and its two neighbours, Lord’s Seat and Whinlatter) today as part of my ongoing second Wainwright round. I’ll work some other day…. OK? Wouldn’t you?

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Jul 29 2020
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Daily Post, Landscape

Walker and Walna Scar

Tuesday 28th July 2020, 1.20pm (day 3,260)

Walker and Walna Scar, 28/7/20

This guy was very helpful today — not because he offered us direction as such, but because his bright orange and yellow gear was later seen heading up Harter Fell, our destination for the day, and this helped reveal the correct path.  Hence the value of hi-vis.  A good walk today but I never seem to experience Eskdale in truly good weather.

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Jul 28 2020
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Daily Post, Family Member, Landscape, Portrait

Sandscale Haws

Monday 27th July 2020, 2.45pm (day 3,259)

Sandscale Haws, 27/7/20

The beauty of Cumbria is not entirely found in its lakes and mountains. The coast is also very fine. After a terrible morning’s weather put the high country out of bounds, we got out anyway and Sandscale Haws, near Barrow, gave us something to enjoy as the weather cleared. Joe practices his ballet moves, it seems.

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Jul 27 2020
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Daily Post, Landscape

What on earth are you doing here

Sunday 26th July 2020, 12.05pm (day 3,258)

Stony Tarn, 26/7/20

That was doubtless the thought in the minds of these two sheep as this foolhardy human (i.e., me) trudged into their territory in weather that could at best be termed ‘inclement’.  I was certainly thinking it too.  Taken at Stony Tarn, near Eskdale, at about the point I decided to give up on the primary target of the hike and go somewhere warmer and drier.

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Jul 26 2020
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Daily Post, Sport

The cricketers of Keswick

Saturday 25th July 2020, 2.35pm (day 3,257)

Keswick cricket, 25/7/20

Over these months of lockdown it has become apparent that Our Glorious Leadership have been taking decisions on an arbitrary basis.  What is ‘safe’, what is not? What is healthy, what is not? No one really knows.  So, on the evidence of activities taking place in Fitz Park, Keswick, today, cricket is OK, including having spectators present — but not yet football, oh no.  And I don’t mean here the type of football played in front of 30,000 packed together and sweaty fans, but the sort that keeps people fit and provides enjoyment for a few dozen.  That is, the sort I like best.  I am not griping about the fact there was cricket in Keswick today: I think it’s a good thing.  But there seems no reason why, for instance, the football club (Keswick FC) that play in the same park shouldn’t be back in action soon.  Unless you talk to Our Glorious Leadership.

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Jul 25 2020
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Daily Post, Transport

Arrival at Ravenglass

Friday 24th July 2020, 3.35pm (day 3,256)

Train at Ravenglass, 24/7/20

The 15:35 heads for Ravenglass station, beside the estuary of the river Esk.  And then leaves again — without me on it — meaning, I am about to have a first night away from home in Hebden for 135 days, since my trip to Lincoln on March 10th.  The walls of the valley were beginning to close in.  Here, the vistas are much different.  Variety is a good thing.  It is good to be on holiday in this mad year.

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Jul 12 2020
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Daily Post, Landscape

Tiny Tyne

Saturday 11th July 2020, 12.55pm (day 3,243)

Tiny Tyne, 11/7/20

If you’ve ever been to the city of Newcastle, you will be plenty familiar with the River Tyne, which flows through the place like a big fat worm, and is spanned by a multitude of bridges.

This, however, is the baby Tyne: a mere infant in swaddling clothes, pictured a couple of miles south of the village of Garrigill in Cumbria, and as near the middle of nowhere as one tends to get in England. I think it’s rather cute.

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