Loadpot Hill and Wether Hill

We have some books to drop off and Breeze's Aunty Janets (where she goes on her holidays!), so we thought we'd do a walk near there and kill two birds with one stone. So we started near Heltondale and gently climbed up Heltondale and Hart hill

Spot the dog!

Here she comes back again

Finally we reach the summit of Loadpot Hill, which was in cloud when we got there!

From there we join High Street to reach Wether Hill. The cloud was coming and going for a good lot of this walk

From Wether Hill it was downhill all the way, over Low Kop, The Hause and Hause end. The day was improving all the time

We should have crossed Cawdale Beck at the ford, but as it was about 3ft deep, we carried on to this bridge nearby

Over the bridge and  up to the lonning that leads back to the car. Looking back the cloud has lifted from the tops now. The Hause is just to the left of the telegraph pole

About 9 miles today, but gentle up and gentle down made it feel much less. Shame about the cloud on the top, but a really nice walk.

Dash Falls

With all the rain we have had recently, it seemed like a good idea to visit a waterfall. It will come as no surprise to learn that the best ones are off the tourists radar. So we headed off for a quiet 'Back O'Skiddaw' walk today.

Follow the Yellow Brick Road. Dash Falls appears as we steadily climb away from the car

Hurry up Mummy, you know I don't like stopping.

As expected, Dash Falls were pretty spectacular to day - and it was sunny!

Into the sunshine and it was a really steep climb up Birkett Edge onto Bakestall. Good job the views were worth stopping for!

Looking East, a bit of cloud on Blencathra and the pointy side of Lonscale silhouetted in the sunshine

At the top of Bakestall with Skiddaw in the background, but we are heading over Broad End today

An equally steep decent down White Horse into the lovely Barkbethdale and back to the car (Bassenthwaite in the middle distance).

Just short of 7 miles. A really steep climb and a really steep descent, coupled with some strong cold winds after lunch (in the shelter on Bakestall). That's blown the Christmas and New Year cobwebs away!

Walking The Dog

A spur of the moment decision took us over t'other side of High Pike this morning for a make it up as we go along sort of walk. We set off up Fellside Brow and onto Birk Hill

Nice to see a bit of sun. Breeze proving that she has been trained!

Mr B decides which way to go across Birk Moss (Breeze behaving again!)

Behind me is Roughton Gill. Our aim for today. Time for a coffee stop

Looking back as we follow Dale Beck back to the car

We ended up doing about 5.5 miles and although we hadn't planned where we would walk, we also hadn't brought any lunch as we didn't intend being out that long. So as we were passing the door, we stopped off for a pint and a bowl of soup at Hesket Pub, the first community pub in the UK - and it's been that way for years now. What a great way to end a dog walk!

Happy New Year

Breeze has had her Cousin to stay. Chris and Alison arrived on New Years Eve to stay for a few days, with Gwen the Welsh Terrier. This is the first time the two of them have spent any amount of time together (Breeze and Gwen, not Chris and Alison!). Gwen didn't take long to make herself comfortable. It's a good job Breeze is good at sharing!

Excuse me, that's my spot.

With the stormy weather continuing, there are no photos of walks. New Years day was a washout (as forecast) so full head to toe waterproofs and a 'make it up as you go along' dog walk over The Tongue at Mungrisdale. We probably covered about 2 miles. As usual Breeze will have done about 20 and Gwen started out chasing her and barking at her. She soon realised that with her short legs she was wasting her time and settled to a more sensible pace!

2nd January was a much better day, but again no photos. We decided on a short trip up Great Lingy Hill to give Chris and Alison the experience of  a Lingy Hut picnic. Followed by an off piste route over Coomb Height and down to meet The Cumbria Way. Again 3.5 to 4 miles, but a bit more of a climb and a lot of heather to tramp through. Gwen slept well that night!

So it's back to normal now 2014 is well under way.

Peace at last

Merry Christmas

Christmas Day has brought a welcome break in the wild and wet weather we have been having. For the first time, w have got Christmas to ourselves this year, and the plan has always been to get out on the fells. So here we go

Beautiful, sunny day but a bitterly cold, strong wind make for hard work. We have opted for High Pike. It's only a few minutes down the road, we know it like the back of our hand and no matter how icy, it won't cause a problem as its all grassy terrain. Above about 1600 feet and we had an inch or two of snow to make it feel like Christmas!

Christmas lunch. Hot soup and pasties in the shelter. What a fab way to spend Christmas, just the three of us doing what we love.

Too windy for pictures on the summit, but just before we get there, a quick snap to prove that we were there

Jeff demonstrates how windy it is.................. and so does Breeze

Back down nearly at the car. The locals have come to wish us a Merry Christmas

Breeze and Friends

Breeze has been doing a fair bit of socialising just lately. The first few pics were actually taken at the beginning of November. They were taken by Abby, Dawns daughter and she has just emailed them to us.

Dawn and family have a collie pup (who is now nearly fully grown) called Buddy (yes it's a popular name round these parts). We have never managed to get the pair of them together, but finally we did. Breeze was her usual timid self for a while

'Hello, I'm Buddy.'
 'No you're not, he's all black and he's in France'

 Unusually for breeze, there was a glimmer of hope that she might start to play, we decided to take them into the sand ring and the moment their feet touched the sand, she was off!

She quickly learnt that she could stop and turn much more quickly than a young, uncoordinated collie

By the end of their first date they were firm friends, and racing round the sand ring has become a regular occurrence.

 Fast forward a ffew weeks, and Breeze had her mate Jess to stay for a few days. Exercising two was no problem, Breeze always runs for fun and Jess (who doesn't normally) was quite happy to chase her

You might notice we've had a bit of rain lately!

And her comes Kane - 7 months and huge. Breeze still puts him in his place though!

Jess watches as Breeze and Kane have a game 

Two very wet, very muddy girls. Best friends!

Over To The Other Side

If you know us well, you will know that going to a city is a Big Deal (excluding Lincoln which doesn't count), so you may be surprised to hear that we have had an away night in Newcastle. Only a few crap photos as I didn't take the camera, so the phone had to do. A flying visit to say the least. Arrived at about 3pm (by train) with just a short while to have a quick look around and find somewhere for a bite to eat.

Millennium Bridge (not it's real name)

There are Loads of wonderful Bridges

And beautiful buildings. We were really impressed with our brief tour.

After a really good meal we headed to the City Hall for the main reason for our visit. Four tickets to see Deacon Blue

Crap picture but you get the idea. They really were Awesome!

Then hotel over night and catch the train first thing in the morning.

Grisedale

A good dusting of snow on the Northern fells and a forecast for freezing temperatures all day, so we decided to stick to a low level walk today and leave the heroics to others. As we drove down to Patterdale to start our walk, it soon became clear that the snow had not fallen just that bit further south and all that was evident was a slight dusting here and there. 

We parked in Patterdale and took the footpath to climb gently along the bottom of Glenmara Park which would eventually lead us into Grisedale.

A really easy 8 miles. It's great to have a few low level options up your sleeve that can be lengthened or shortened to suit the day or the company. This is definitely one of those spots.

Wildlife Update

For a while we have had an inkling that we had a visiting bird of prey other than the resident sparrow hawks. This afternoon after we returned home from our walk (see next post!) our suspicions were confirmed. Unfortunately the camera wasn't to hand in time, but with said bird perching on a fence post for long enough for detailed identification, we now know that we have a male goshawk visiting. Not good news for the other wildlife in the garden, but it's wonderful to have such a diverse range of wildlife in our own back garden. He better leave the squirrels alone though.

Picture courtesy of www.falconryforum.co.uk

Boys on Tour

Mr B and Nick were off up to Newcastle to watch The Falcons, so Rose and I decided on an afternoon stroll in their absence. Obviously we couldn't be out for too long, they will need feeding when they get back!

So after a morning of normal chores, like feeding the livestock

We parked up Swineside and headed up the Cumbria way by Grainsgill Beck (spot the white thing ahead, between the beck and the path)

Looking back, the car is down there in the valley

When we reached Arm o Grain, we left the Cumbria way and headed for Lingy Hut - there it is up on the skyline

From Lingy Hut we headed south west and made our way onto Coomb Height. From there it was downhill all the way

With a fairly steep section over the end of the fell

Breeze has been suitably booted again. These boots are amazing, you will soon see Breeze featured on their website singing her praises 

Nearly back at the car. Only 3.5 miles, but a lovely 'make it up as you go' sort of walk leaving plenty of time to go back and turn into a domestic goddess or two.