Back out into the mountains — for a long and rather difficult walk from Coniston to Eskdale. This shot was taken towards the end, by which time I had already done 12 miles and was feeling rather knackered. The sheep seen here probably wondered what I was doing out on their heaf. I was wondering this too, to some extent.
No walking today. Instead we made our way up to Rydal Park for the annual Ambleside Sports, an event where you can watch runners yomp up the fellsides, hounds follow tracks of aniseed around the same terrain, cycling, running and Cumberland wrestling, where strapping lads (and women, too) lock their hands round each other and attempt to get their opponent onto the floor first — best of three. While wearing natty velvet shorts, if you’re doing it in the full traditional manner.
Coniston Old Man rises to 2633 feet above the town of Coniston, and its rocks have long been the source of much of the place’s income — whether as nowadays, where people like me turn up and want to climb on them, or in the past, where they were mined and quarried to a great extent. This is the only major Lakeland fell where you encounter the ruins of so much industrial activity, negotiating, among other things, the remains of this old iron ropeway as you haul yourself up the fell.
I’m a few days behind, due to wi-fi issues at the first place we stayed this week. But oh yes — I’m definitely in the Lake District 🙂
The title of the shot is as much aspiration as description. Today I am in Morecambe. Tomorrow, I will be over in the Lake District, on the other side of the Bay; the fells forming the horizon are (left to right) Dow Crag, Grey Friar and Coniston Old Man. Let’s have a week off work, somewhere beautiful. That’s a decent aspiration….
Spent a little while today watching this bird (probably a jackdaw although I have given up trying to identify these species accurately) working out how it could get at the bounty inside this rubbish skip with its marginally open lid. This was the moment of triumph.
The holidays have started, and a sunny day brought the crowds out into Hebden Bridge town centre today. All needed refreshment…
Venue for Joe’s fortnightly extra-curricular entertainment (involving the mass genocide of small lead figures representing orcs, wizards and other fantastical beings). Normally we leave him to it but tonight we went up to this Victorian chapel on the moors to get dinner at the nearby pub and celebrate the fact that I’ve been off work today and will remain in this state for the next 16 days. The pools of light and colour in the chapel caught my eye on the way back home.
The twice-yearly graduation ceremonies give us the chance to dress up in our finery and enjoy some pomp and circumstance. Opportunities to do that are getting fewer in the world so let’s embrace them while they still exist. And as ever, congratulations to all the students as well.
As the day wore on, what had started out as ‘close’ weather became downright ‘muggy’ until negotiating the outside world became like wading through treacle. Finally, the storm broke and we got some much-needed rain. It was one of those days at work where I just didn’t really have time to take a decent photo, and anyway, evenings have largely disappeared from this blog at the moment so let’s use this one (in fact this is the latest picture in a day since 9th March). We can call it ‘Storm Study (blue and yellow)’, if you like.
Being 42 