Roughton Gill in Winter

Probably the only day we'll manage to fit a walk in this week and with the winter conditions we decided to head to Fellside and just decide what to do as we went along. The conditions were variable to say the least, from no snow or ice, through sheet ice to thigh deep drifts

Lonely Valley

This is the first outing for my new hat! Made from Shetland wool, knitted by our friend Alison who lives on Shetland.  I think you might be seeing a bit more of The Hat!

The Old Mine Workings at Roughton Gill. Hard to imagine there would have been 100 miners working here at one point.

Breeze is camouflaged in the snow, particularly now it is thawing

Snow Cornices had gone pretty solid. Hard enough for a spaniel to skate on them

But not hard enough to stand the weight of an adult human! We sank in up to our thighs and in truth it was deeper than that.

A rare smile (on a photo - he does smile at other times, just not for the camera!)

Looking down on Dale Beck and the track we had walked up on

Intrepid Explorer

Mummies Little Princess

Back below the Snow Line

Later, back at home. A lovely end to the day.

Visitors

We continue to get a wide range of wildlife in and around the garden, birds in particular and have a whole host of species which are regulars. Golfinches are here all year round but at the moment are in charms totaling in the region of 70 birds often. Siskins are often with them through the year but less frequent are Redpolls and this time of year brings them into the garden particularly often. One evening this week while we had friends over for super, we had a fly past by and owl in the early evening. Too big to be a Tawny (which are frequent visitors at night making a right racket) and only a brief flypast so I can't be sure but it was either a Barn Owl but I think more likely a Short Eared Owl. 

Today we had a visit from another of our regulars. Buddy the Red Setter.

I think he might have been tired when he went home!

Gowbarrow Winter Wonderland

At last we get chance to get out for a walk. The first fell of 2016. Roads aren't to good unless they are gritted and the forecast suggests the day will deteriorate. We decide to park at the Quarry Car park and had intended to go onto Watermillock Common, but somehow Gowbarrow was calling! Dropping the camera in the snow as we were getting sorted by the car seems to have given it a bit of a smudge!

Breeze and her Dad

She's such a lunatic. We'd only gone through the top end of Aira Force and just started climbing up the Fell, but already she had run around enough to make her feet bleed. Thankfully I always carry her boots in my rucksack or this would have been a very short walk.

The snow was about Breezy armpit deep. She still did something like 10 times the distance we did, but hers was predominantly off path and involved bouncing through the snow. How on earth she kept it up I can't imagine, it looked exhausting

Blencathra

Reaching the summit

We headed doen over Green HIll. Mostly there were only one set of footprints and at times none. At times the snow was well over our Knees, that's about twice Breeze's height. It id actually slow her down briefly! She was really loving it.

Time to stop for a bit of sustenance

From here it was just a steady wander back down and through the woods above Aira Force

A mere 3 miles, but a lovely start to our 2016 walks and as we have done so little for so long we probably would have been exhausted if we'd done too much. Breeze was pretty tired by the end today!

Winter has finally arrived - Happy New Year!

2016 hasn't got off to a very good start. Husband has been suffering with a bad cold since Christmas, but thank God he's had the Flu jab, on New Years Day, I went down with full blown, eyeball, eyelid, teeth and hair aching Flu with a chest infection thrown in for good measure. By about 10th Jan I hadn't stepped foot out of the house let alone ridden or walked anywhere. Looking on the positive, the weather's been crap so we haven't missed much. Just as I'm fit again and ready to get back to riding out, we get about 4" of snow. Breeze thinks that's OK!

Sarah and Charlie come to join in the snowball fight

Twisting and turning to catch the snowballs

After luch we head over to Caldbeck to get a haircut. Camera pictures, most of which were taken through the windscreen of a moving car (don't panic, I wasn't driving), but they sum up what a Winter Wonderland we are living in just now. 

Carrock on the right with Blencathra at the back behind Bannerdale. Taken from the How Hill

Driving through the Forest, just up the road from Home

Coming back into the Village. Penines over on the right

Rainfall

We've spent most of our lives in Agriculture so can be forgiven  for having a bit of an obsession with the weather. This past two months have been seriously wet and an awful lot of lives round here have been seriously affected. We feel so very sorry for all those who have had homes and businesses ruined. We are very fortunate that other than a few places where damp has managed to penetrated the building, we are fine.

We both get so cross when the media (and a lot of others) witter on about how this is the worst whatever since records began. IT'S ONLY BEEN RECORDED FOR JUST OVER 100 YEARS FOR GODS SAKE AND THE WORLD IS A BLOODY SIGHT OLDER THAN THAT !!!

So, rant over, here are the last 17 years worth of records for our village. Yes it has been exceptional in the last 2 months but no,... it isn't the highest rainfall year ever, not even in the last 20 years.