April

It’s springtime, the skies are blue, although it may be a bit cold, and we are open! It is lovely to have guests in the Cottages again, everyone so happy to be able to come away on holiday after lockdown. I had a haircut last Monday, what a difference it makes and to celebrate I had my first Luchini’s icecream of the season on Whinlatter.

After welcoming yesterday’s guests I took the dog out past the Kirkstile where people were sat in the garden having drinks and headed down the lane to take a picture of some beautiful primroses I had seen on the verge a couple of days ago. There were also lots of glowing celandines which made me ponder on why flowers like celandines and dandelions get such a bad press in gardens – I do know the answer but in the right place they are lovely.

The mornings in the past week have been very cold, I registered -3C on the bridge by Lanthwaite Wood the other day. There has been very little wind and early in the morning Crummock has been very still with lots of incredible reflections. Max however needed a swim…..

Towards the end of last year when we were able to meet outside in small groups  six of us decided to get together for some local walks (plus coffee and cake!) These sadly came to a halt in January but we have now restarted with a walk up Melbreak last week. We went up via Todd’s Trod in Mosedale which Mark Richards, in his new series of walks books, Walking the Lake District Fells, has named after the local farmer who told him about the route. Below is the view towards Loweswater from Melbreak top.

This morning I met a friend I had not seen for a while for an early morning walk over Sale Fell. We had a hazy but lovely view across Bassenthwaite as we meandered around the fell catching up on each other’s news.

On our return we came by the walls of the old Wythop church, always a place to reflect on valley life in times gone by.