Reasons for Reasons
I was ‘raised’ – to use a phrase from our American friends – in south Lakeland and it has always remained home. Even though I left to study when I was 18 and didn’t return untill September 2010. A lot of years.
During those interim years I have had a great life, travelled and met some wonderful people and also have a managed to bring up my son fairly successfully. So, it although it was sort of ‘on the plan’, my move back North was not without trepidation.
As part of my ‘self affirmation’ that I had made the right decision I started a Facebook album ‘Reasons To Move North’. This has had wonderful comments from my friends but I never had the courage to make it public. Then recently I went on a Travel Writing Course with Zoe ,and much to my delight and surprise received more affirmation from positive comments on my travel writing. Something else which has always remained strictly within closed leaves.
A mindful review of my first year here followed and I realised that I had had an amazing twelve months. Yes, I have travelled away, but I have also done more here in the North West than I would have previously thought possible. And I have had so many visitors! People like it here! I have become a guide for friends and acquaintances who then spread the word about how wonderful the Lake District is. This led to my providing itineraries for weekends or longer visits. Some I accompanied, others I simply provided a ‘bespoke’ itinerary, with or with accommodation booked.
So, now it’s time to go Global!
And now I have built my own blog I have used my technical, from a previous life in IT, to build one for the Howgill Harriers. If you would like one put together then please contact me for a quote.
St Sunday on Sunday
The first cold snap. Some what late in mid November. At last the hills seen from my bedroom window were white. I remember when snow used to cover them for six months. No longer. Global warming? Suffice to say it was a welcome sight. Not just by me. Suddenly all those adult friends, Facebook or other wise, were rejoicing in child like excitement. Thoughts of crunching snow and snow angels. Closely followed by pictures of crunching snow and videos of snow angels! But I’m in no place to mock. I posted the arrival of snow with...
read moreWet Weather Option
The weekend did not hold out much promise for walking. With MWIS promising gales, torrential rain with zero chance of sunshine. Radio 2 more or less telling the world Cumbria was closed there was little point in heading outside at all – or so one may have thought. With this dismal forecast on the horizon for several days one by one ‘friends’ dwindled down to .. one! And I! Arnside did not offer the dramatic sunsets of October calm. Salty grey scale sky seamlessly blended into washed out sands. Clouds muffled the hills. And wind blew...
read moreWet day in Yorkshire
Clouds sat low. Drenched. Low pressure pushing stair rods of rain. No chance of last week’s escape by climbing higher. A day when tacit acceptance that anything outdoors was just going to be wet. And get wetter. Best to accept and find what excel in the rain. Waterfalls. The Yorkshire Dales are full of them. Racing over limestone. Emerging from tunnels and diving down holes. Water sculpted landscapes with a hidden underground world. Caves. Places I had never had any great inclination to visit. Until I found Phong Nha in Vietnam. It...
read moreInversion Over Coniston
The dreary drifts of November grey. Cold nights, damp dawns and leaden skies. In valleys, on lakes , the weighted coat of autumn wrapped around. It took mountainous enthusiasm and just a little courage to take a walk. Go against the grain, against the instincts and instructions to stay indoors. Walk up a hill. Up through he fog, of which there was plenty on Walna Scar road. I was almost bored. There was little to see, bar the Hobbit House. Then it swirled. Tantalising. Teasing. Parting. Closing. Sinking down below and hiding from...
read moreFall in Cumbria
Autumn this year has stretched on. Golden leaves. Red leaves. Yellow leaves. Draped over lanes Reflected in tarns and stretched over hillsides. Enthusiasm making me randomly pull over. Camera clicking in places I’d seen a hundred times before. Only this time the colour, the cloud, was, maybe, different. Higher hills don’t lose their grandeur. Not to be outshone. Trees left down, but scurrilous tick hiding bracken gives over its green, changing colours to match the lower land. Even grass turned its coat Grey walls looked clean and washed. ...
read moreSharing
Just because I think Cumbria is so wonderful, and I was born here, and eventually found my way back, I have this odd thread of thought that everyone knows about it. Lets face it if Renée Zellweger makes a film set in a place, and Countryfile reveres it, how many people are there left? Ok, I know that doesn’t cover the worlds populace but it didn’t stop me being surprised when I was travelling last year and I found people who had never hear of this rocky bit of land. Not just Asians, I’d figured the news might not get that far. But...
read moreLangstrath Valley
Ancient routes criss cross the fells. From Langdale to Borrowdale. The Cumbria Way traces through, up and over Stake Pass between Mickelden and Langstrath. I’ve trudged down Mickelden many times. In sun and snow, summer winter, even the dark on returning from a long winter’s day on Bow Fell. But I’ve never walk down Langstrath Valley. I’ve skirted round it and peered down from Eagle Crag and up from where the Beck joins Greenup Gill. A previous obsession with walking over Wainwrights dominated all routes. How many could I walk over in a...
read moreYewbarrow
The Indian summer continues ‘up north’. Even at the weekend. Soft white morning mists hanging in valleys, slowly clearing to blue. Wast Water was quiet. Deep water totally still and undisturbed. Steep sides silent. Not a trace of life. September. Perhaps all the tourists had gone home. Only the second car in the car park below Yewbarrow, we headed up. Colours as deep as the lake. Impossible not to turn round every five minutes and just enjoy the moment. A plod up the green and then the scree scramble to the ridge. West coast sands clearly...
read moreClassic Coledale
After a week of sublime sunshine, true to form, the weather broke for the weekend. Saturday washout followed by a Sunday dampened by cloud. Flat light on nondescript waves green of purple and green. There was barely a snatch of sun until we left the hill behind and headed home. But the Newlands Valley provided an adequate landscape to tramp across and take the odd photo or three. Our clockwise route started up Barrow. Skirted round Outerside Before the zig zag up Sail. Far too busy enjoying the day, the hills and just being, We...
read moreSilver How
An Indian Summer. At last some sunshine. High pressure and blue sky. When the schools have closed and the majority of tourists have fled down the M6 to their more mundane surroundings. I arrived in Grasmere at 8.20am a few days ago the car park was empty! As were the streets. No one was about, shops were closed, the only person I met was a disgruntled paper boy. Trees tinged with gold by the cold, cloudless nights. Hills floated eerily above mist rising slowly from the lake. Leaving the lake I headed up through a newly carpeted woodland...
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