Flopsy, Mopsy and Cottontail

Well, I finally have time to write about last weekend's adventures in the lake district.

8/6- I drove up on friday after 1/2 a day working at my favourite school in the morning. The drive took me from 1pm to 6.30pm and was a crawl from Bristol to Blackpool, with an average speed of about 20mph, when the limit is 70. Many times we actually ground to a halt! So, when I finally got to my B&B I was staying in in Keswick I checked in then I got shown a route to the nearest lake, which I walked down to and sat there for a while watching the sun glinting on the water. (Side note: luckily someone else said the name of the town first, as I would have embarrassed myself calling it kes-wick when it is pronounced kessick). It was so unspoilt and picturesque. I noticed that about the whole of the area, there was almost no trash just left anywhere, it was looked after, cared for, despite the number of tourists going through.

Then I went back to my room and fell fast asleep.

9/6- The next morning I went down for my brekky, met Merlin, the resident dog, and got shown a walk of the easiest Fell. This is what they call the many mountains they have up there... fells. The local one, and a reasonable small one was Latrigg. The guide said it was walking 6 miles up 1000ft and should take 3 hours. So I set off. It was a warm day and I had to buy a rather unstylish hat from the market in the town square so I didn't get burnt, and some sunscreen.

The first part almost killed me. Once I got to the fell the first part is very steep and I had to stop and get out my inhaler as the incline and the humidity was just messing with my breathing. So I had that, then I sat down for a little bit to try and stop my heart beating so fast and so strong it had flooded my head too. Then I set off again and finally you get to a section where you can keep going up the 5th highest fell in the lake district, or you can turn off for Latrigg. I turned off. You then zig zag up a much more do-able slope until you reach the top where there are some amazing views. You actually walk through sheep fields and have to walk through lots of gates etc. On the way down from there it got to a part that was gravel and downhill. Knowing my knees I slowly and carefully went down the path, ensuring each foot was secure before I placed all my weight on it to take a step. I had been going down this path for a couple of minutes, steadily and carefully and had about 3 more steps before I came to the fence that marked the end of the field with the path, and an actual road. There was a stile going over the fence which the couple in front had climbed over, and they were stopped waiting for me. When I was 3 more steps to go, she said "we can open the gate from this side, would you like me to open the gate?" so I didn't have to climb over. So I looked at her and said yes, and in doing so stopped concentrating on my steps and went BANG down onto my right hip/thigh. Thanks to the stones, I didn't get one flat bruise, I got about 4 large welts that came up immediately as I landed on 4 stones. So... I fell on a fell. *sigh*

Then from there it went on a bit of a marathon path through the woods, which I started to regret as it was narrow paths with loose stones and dirt and sheer drops down the side of the fell if u slipped. But some of the up was so steep I couldn't bear turning around and going back down them! It was so deep in the woods that I went to walk over a little bridge and a red squirrel came to cross the path, saw me and ran up a tree. The red squirrels are very rare as the grey squirrel has almost wiped them out, and greys are pests.

So I plodded on and got down the bottom to where there was a river, so I sat there for a while and cooled down, then headed off again. I finally got back to town about 3.25 hours after i set off,and I had about 25 minutes of breaks along the way, so that means I did it in just under 3 hours. So yay me! On the way down the path 2 ladies in little lycra numbers RAN past me. Freaks! Then when I got back I grabbed a bread roll and went to sit down by the lake again, getting my normal colour back in my cheeks. It must have been about 25'C which I have acclimatised myself to finding hot now.

10/6- This was my Beatrix Potter day. I checked out of the B&B and put my stuff in the car, then was picked up by Colin for a personal guided tour. I was the only person on the tour. Colin and I got along very well which was good. Chatted all the way. He runs the company with his wife, although she does more of the office stuff as they have a new baby. Anyways, yes, so we went off to see a couple of the sites from different stories. I must admit I am not a huge Beatrix Potter fan and haven't read most of the stories in such a long time I forget what they are about, but it was more just nice areas of the Lake District. I went on a boat down the lake to see it from the water, then met back up with Colin who took me to a place called the Drunken Duck Inn for lunch. Then we went to Beatrix Potter's house, which was quite small and had a gorgeous English country garden. Then from there we went to see her studio which was very creaky and old and I thought I was going to fall through the floor to downstairs! Then on the way back we had time to swing by Castlerigg stone circle, which I had mentioned I hadn't seen but wanted to, which is a massive stone circle, and it heaps older than Stonehenge and no one knows what it was used for, or why. It is an amazing place because you can see all around as it is on top of a fell.

Then we went back to the B&B where I got back in my car and drove to my aunt's place where I stayed the night. I was so sore and stiff from my walk the day before and sitting around all that day, and in the car, that I couldn't bear getting up at 4.45am Monday to go to work, so I rang in and told them I wasn't available. Ummah, I know, but i was exhausted. So then I drove down the rest on Monday, having done a grand total of 655miles in the weekend... or 1054km.

I had a lovely class on Tues/Wed/Thurs. They were lively, but proper lively, not "lively" like the others they send me too. I really enjoyed it. Still teachers who are used to proper sit down do your work schools would have struggled with this class, but I found it a relief from the usual dramas! Then yesterday I had a reception class at a bad school. One of the boys drove me mental which his constant whinging about everything. "They are all being selfish to me!" So I told him to not use words he didn't know what they meant. And his breath stank cos instead of teeth he had little rotting black sticks in his mouth probably rarely brushed and fed very poor diet. *shudder*.

Tonight I had a band gig at a village in the middle of no where's wine and cheese quiz night. Apparently they go every year. It was fun, we play, then we go and have wine and cheese and do the quizzes too, then we play again, bu which time people are better lubricated, so they sing along. And we played Tequila and the audience all get percussion bits and pieces to play too during the piece. And it just goes downhill from there. It was a good night, but a tiring night as it started at 8 and didn't finish til 11.30 and by the time I got home etc. It is now 1.35am and I just have to finish this then I am going to bed. *YAWN*