Fine Weather Days

 

This summer I’ve spent so much time whinging about the inclement summer

it’s good to be able to redress the balance.

In little over a week there have been at least three days of glorious sunshine. 

Three days when I have managed to get out up a hill

and enjoy autumn in the Lakes at its best.

Being not particularly brave, for me to venture on to any ridge I need to be able to see where I’m going, have completely dry footholds and absolutely zero chance of being ‘buffeted’ by the slightest breeze.

And so it was.  A day of calm.  Bar the tourists!  Unfortunately the October half term had brought everyone and his dog out for the day and there was a serious need for traffic control on Striding Edge.  Can’t have it all ways I suppose.

Only two days later, punctuated by a day of dreich November drizzle, there was the sun again. 

Autumn colours are by far the best.

Just a few days later and Coniston was as burnished as the copper once mined.

Everything sharp and clear. ‘Weather’ momentarily forgotten.

Even the detritus had a corresponding shade of rust.

With the ridges folding endlessly towards the Pennines on one side

while falling to the sea westward

we were unsurprisingly not alone.

Totally unruffled, perfect clouds hung in Levers water as the sun slipped slowly away,

towards the end of the day.

A  short walk from Coniston Copper mines