So despite the cold it’s still fabulous here in the Lakes.
For once I’ve got a day with no training plan, no clients, no need to get photo’s for a website – yes there’s still some decorating to be finished but it’s such a nice day….
Cat’s been wanting to get out & find some inspiration for her next painting – and a day like this is too good for either of us to want to stay indoors – we need very little persuasion to pack the car and by 10am (hey – everyone deserves a lie in from time to time) we’re parked at Haweswater and heading up onto the fells.
Those of you who know us will be unsurprised to know Pushka (Siberian Husky) goes nuts. She knows when a good walk is on the cards & the added attraction of all this snow seems to set off some ancestral memory, her eyes roll back in her head & she’s howls with joy.
I’m not going to thrill you with descriptions of the walk itself – the picture probably tells you far more eloquently than I could just how glorious it was – but there were a couple of things that I wanted to write about.
Firstly – and sadly as it seems to be a feature of this winter – I was again amazed how many people we saw having to cut their days short, or struggle in unsafe conditions for a lack of preparation and forethought. Over half the people we saw (a lot of them heading back to their cars by midday) had no axes, crampons or often, even suitable footwear. Ultimately many people got far less from the day than they could have.
Secondly – amid the doom & gloom that this sudden late cold spell brought to farmers & wildlife – it was lovely to make our way round onto Kidsty Pike and look down and see the valley floor full of grazing red deer – they must have found a sheltered spot & stayed there, hopefully all safe. We ate our lunch looking at them & then carried on round, sun on our backs, wind in our faces.