Lake District, July, Day 3. A Kent Canter with flowers, butterflies and beer.

As we wandered along the summer river Bank it was difficult to believe that we had woken to rain first thing.  The early rain did have the benefit of giving us a lazy morning; always welcome!  We stayed and had lunch at the site and then set off for our walk along the River Kent to Stavely and back across the fields.  Things had changed dramatically since we did this walk in May when bluebells were the theme of the trip.  Everything is now much more grown up and verdant and we were delighted with the wide range of flowers that we found.  Plenty of butterflies were on the wing as well: large skippers, tortoishells, meadow browns, ringlets, small white and a possible fritillary.  The river was beautiful as always with water hemlock and mimulus or monkey flower giving fresh interest.  When there were no sheep in the meadows they were rich with grasses, flowers and butterflies.  Those fields that had sheep in were grazed to the ground and sterile.  When we reached Stavely we had planned a cup of tea in Wilf's  but it was closed so we had to make do with a beer at the brewery next door.  What a shame, eh!  The last mile over the fields went quickly and we were soon settled outside the van in the sun with a beer waiting for the BBQ to heat up.  An excellent day.

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Giant Bellflower

Hemlock Water Dropwort

Hemlock Water Dropwort

Yellow Loosestrife