Grasmere

This is probably cheating a bit, I took this lot of photographs along with the ones of Rydal Water. 
It seemed to make sense to split them up as I had so many.
The two lakes are close with White Moss car park in between, I must admit that we go a bit further towards Ambleside and once you've passed the end of Rydal Water there's a sharp right turn over a bridge and then right again into a small but free car park.
Walk around the footpath with the Lake on your right and then head uphill onto the Loughrigg Terraces looking across the lake at Grasmere.
It is possible to keep to a lower level and end up on the shores of Gramere and in all the years we've been coming to the Lake District we've never done that. 
No doubt as the knees get creakier it will become our favourite walk.
The views from the Terraces are lovely and there are loads of benches for you to sit while getting your breath back or simply to pause and enjoy the scenery.
Eventually you reach a set of steps to climb up onto Loughrigg Fell, don't be deceived into thinking it's an easy climb and you'll manage it in your flip flops. 
As it gets higher it gets trickier and I had a few 'never again' mutters under my breath.
Once you reach the trig point the views are awesome and you have a selection of paths to follow, take a map so you know where you'll end up. We'd left the map in the car so took the route we knew that brought us back down to the remains of the slate mine just five minutes from the car park.
So here are some more Lake District photographs.

Rydal Water on a misty morning

The footpath around the edge of Rydal Water

Looking back from the footpath up to Loughrigg

Coming up Loughrigg Terraces above the mist with the early light burning through, the footpath follows the wall you see in the left corner.

Still some mist over Grasmere

 Almost a birds eye view over Grasmere and the hills beyond.

Loughrigg Fell

TT heading back downhill, you can see all the lumps and bumps left from the slate mining operations. Seems hard to believe this was an industrial landscape at one time.

And that's it for another day. I was going to have one discreet ad on my blog but apparently I lack content, who'd have guessed, so you've been spared.

Thankyou for viewing my photographs.

Rain

A day out, some early dithering about where to go but the thought of driving through the traffic in Newcastle to reach the North East Coast was off putting enough for us to decided to head west, to Ullswater just 40 miles from Gilsland.
The forecast was for rain, TT was optomistically predicting that the rain clouds would clear as soon as we reached Ullswater.
It's not one of the Lake District Lakes that we visit very often, in fact I can't remember the last time we were there.
I did go to Aira Force as a child and I went to one of the excellent plant fairs at Dalamain a couple of years ago but I don't think I went down as far as the lake.
So we ended up in a very wet Pooley Bridge this morning, first stop was for a scone and coffee,in a tea room across from the car park.
The food was nice but the seats of the chairs were horribly stained and, silly though it may be, that really put me off the place.
Eventually it came to the point where we could delay no longer, and headed off down the footpath that takes you to the east side of the lake and didn't the rain come down in torrents.
TT being chirpy reminded me once or twice that it just wouldn't be the Lakes without the rain as I trudged along, specs covered in rain and the new camera in a tesco plastic bag to keep it dry.
On a cold, wet day I can manage quite well without chirpy, thankyou very much.
I did take a couple of photographs, there's even a bit of light in one of them, but Ullswater isn't a particularly pretty Lake, not the way Derwentwater is so maybe I haven't missed much.

A grey day on Ullswater

The steamer that travels down the Lake to Glenridding stopping at various points on the Lake.

The Ullswater Boat House

I walked around to the oft photographed Ullswater Boat House trying to find the spot where most photographs are taken from. I half expected to find a spot with tripod holes or x marks the spot but I couldn't figure it out. I think people must climb over the wall onto the private land to get the right angle for these shots. Here's mine from the road where there's a gap in the shrubbery.

We had a very nice lunch in the big hotel in Pooley Bridge and then went a bit further down the Lake, the sun came out briefly and I caught a bit of light on the easy shore.

I took a grand total of 17 photographs today.

Let there be light.

All photographs used in this Blog are copyright of Joan Thirlaway and cannot be used without written permission