The Lakes, Days 10 and 11.

 We spent Wednesday 9th visiting friends and exploring Kendal. An excellent day.

Thursday was another bus day, this time to Grasmere. On arrival we enjoyed coffee and cake in the Heaton Cooper Studio before launching off to Easedale Tarn. The weather was perfect and it was good to reminisce as we passed the Quaker Guest House where I had stayed whilst at school many years ago. We quickly reached the steep part of Sourmilk Ghyll with plenty of stops for photography. The climb went quickly and it wasn't long before we pulled up to the tarn. This is a popular spot for wild swimming but it looked cold today. Deciding to pass on the swimming as I had left my wet suit behind (!) we made do with lunch, finishing off last year's Christmas cake. Crossing the beck we descended into Far Easedale and made our way back by Easedale Ghyll along a superb greenlane. This was the route Thomas and I took on mountain bikes when we rode Wainwright's Coast to Coast, 16 years ago now! Green lanes like this fascinate me: who has walked them in the past; do they hold memories of those who have gone before; was it an old packhorse route?

In the perfect weather the autumn colours were beginning to come into their own now. Once back in Grasmere we again dallied in shops and cafe before catching the bus home, returning at 6.30. Once more it was comforting and cosy wandering down the lane at dusk with lights on the site beginning to shine out. The bar, of course, was too tempting to resist.

The Lakes, Day 9.

 Although it was another damp day we enjoyed a walk around our local woods. We had some lovely light and wonderful wet wood smells: mulchy and composty.

The Lakes Day 6,7 and 8 The Rain Comes

 After a couple of days pottering waiting for it to rain, it finally arrived today, although it cleared later to give some beautiful light and we were able to sit outside with a cup of tea. Our visit today was to Holehird Gardens just outside Windermere. The Lakeland Horticultural Society's hillside gardens, it includes a great variety of specimen trees and shrubs, extensive rock and heather gardens, alpine houses, a walled garden, herbaceous borders and stream gardens. Well worth a visit. We had been in July for Heather's birthday and were keen to return in the autumn. It was so different three months later with wonderful colours. Yet again, I was taken with the succulents and alpines and wonder if that is what we should concentrate on in our greenhouse; food for thought.

Later, in the dusk, we walked up the lane to look for the barn owl that we had seen hunting over the fields previously. No luck, unfortunately, but the sunset was well worth going out for. The aurora alert went up to red and stayed there all night. Despite several forays outside even in the wee, small hours I had no luck. Annoyingly it was seen countrywide and even more annoyingly from the sea front back home.

The Lakes, Day 5. Leighton Moss Birding

 As usual, we had an excellent day at Leighton Moss and the birding was good with 39 species including greenshank, marsh tit and great white egret. An added bonus was buying some new binoculars for my Christmas present.

Chaffinch

Chaffinch

Goldfinch in moult

Blue tit

Goldfinch

Bearded Tits on grit tray

Bearded Tits on grit tray

Cormorant

Cormorant

Pintail

Snipe