September

It is now becoming quite autumnal, leaves are blowing into the courtyard and the trees across in Lanthwaite Wood are subtly starting to change colour. The swallows and house martins have departed but I have not yet heard the skeins of geese overhead as they start to migrate. There seem to have been a lot of wayside flowers in a late second bloom, dog daisies, scabious, meadow sweet. And I have had an incredible amount of red admirals on my sedum and the tall spikes of actea in the garden.

The first Sunday of the month was Loweswater Show. The weather forecast was dire and at times it seemed doubtful if the show would go ahead but it did, it is a lovely valley event and the rain held off till around 3 o’clock. If you want to see more about the show Roger and Ann Hiley have got lots of pictures on their website which give a super flavour of the day. I thought it would be easy to photograph some penned herdwicks, a captive audience, but they can still manage to turn away.

I had better luck taking a walk down the field towards the lake one evening. The farmer had penned some sheep next to the wall with Grasmoor as a perfect back drop.

Yesterday was a stunning day, with a calm, misty morning, sun just breaking through. I decided the baking could wait and headed down to Crummock with Max: he was not allowed to cause ripples in the lake till I had taken a few pictures.