A wet day in Cumbria

Although i think that the Lake District is glorious in the sunshine, it has to be said that there is nothing like a wet and grey day on Ullswater. With the mountains and fields all a luscious green, the lake looking deep and mysterious and the smell of ferns that waft around the footpath, all fresh after a shower. As i walked a friend's dog this afternoon, I sat on the lakeshore and just gazed at the scene around me. I find it epically relaxing just to look around and breath. Especially Ullswater, one of my favourite places in the whole wide world. And one could argue that a wet and grey day on Ullswater, means not too many hordes of tourists swamping the shores and tramping the footpaths to the pubs. It becomes quiet, and I had it all to myself.

Now i won't turn this post into a tirade about tourists in the Lake District and how they affect me, as mine and my partner's jobs both depend on tourism in the Lake District, sometimes though it's just hard to share. Having lived up here for four years now, i know that I am hardly any better than the summer hordes, in the eyes of the locals, but having seen the landscape change through the seasons, you can't help feeling that you own a bit of it. And when you know those roads so well, you just can't help getting angry at the people that insist on driving 20mph on a main road, when you're in a rush to your boss's birthday.

I'm meant to be packing for a climbing holiday for Cornwall, but have become distracted by watching the birds out of my cottage window. They are taking shelter, from the rain, next to our two feeders in a bush. The smell of brownies and cookies is wafting about the cottage today as I have been baking some treats for our holiday. I like to think of myself as a person who enjoys climbing tremendously, normally if there is a bit of cake or something yummy to enjoy at the top. And as we are going to be on holiday, the 'something yummy' is going to be high in sugar chocolate. In two minds about whether to take a bottle of our homebrew elderflower down with us, will we actually drink it? Or will we go to the pub most nights?  Decisions decisions.