Another teaching period is complete, my 28th, and I headed back to the Lakes for my usual post-Easter visit. It turned out to be the coldest April visit to the Lake District I have experienced. Certainly, it looks as though the climate is changing and the usual seasonal changes seem much less predictable. The climate isn’t the only thing changing.
Tagged: Lake District, Wainwrights, walking
I have heard it said many times recently that people have forgotten how to behave. One theory is that the relative lack of social interaction during the pandemic has caused some to forget their social skills. Personally, I think there’s more to it than that. Sure, that may be a contributory factor, but I’m more inclined to believe that the pandemic simply exacerbated an already existing decline in social etiquette. Of course, I’m completely aware that I’m growing older and tend to have less tolerance for poor behaviour. Possibly I’m simply experiencing an age-old generational trend of older people believing that younger people don’t know how to behave. Except that it’s not just young people, it’s people in general whose behaviour seems to have…
Tagged: Lake District, Wainwrights, walking
Having not had quite enough of north-western Scotland in the summer of 2021, we decided to head back there in June 2022. This was a holiday of extremes. We had the high of seeing Tilda’s graduation ceremony in Dundee at the beginning of our first week but we also had the low of Hannah and then me being struck down by COVID during the second week. In between times there were some lovely walks and some intermittently good weather. In planning for this trip, I’d hoped to do several Munro walks but the combination of unpredictable weather and illness meant that we went home having bagged just one, Beinn Sgritheall.
For the second year running I had planned to combine a week’s walking in the Lakes with a few days in Snowdonia (or Eryri as the national park is now called). In spring 2021, my plans were thwarted by the COVID-19 pandemic with the lockdown not being eased until May. This year my plans had to be abandoned when, just as I was preparing to leave home, a large crack appeared from top to bottom of the Honda’s windscreen. Inexplicably, it would be two weeks before a replacement windscreen could be fitted. I had no option but to cancel the trip to North Wales, and go straight to the Lakes. Once again though, I’d need a hire car.
Tagged: Lake District, Wainwrights, walking
It wasn’t the most auspicious beginning to an August break in the Lakes. More car trouble meant I’d had to leave the Honda at home and make a last-minute switch to a hire car. Hannah drove me into Andover, first thing on Tuesday morning, where I transferred all my packing to the hire car and set off on the long drive to Cumbria. Rather foolishly, I drove all the way without stopping. As usual, I was keen to be there and to get walking. I skipped lunch, making do with an apple and a muesli bar, and probably didn’t drink much. I arrived at the start point of my planned walk just before 2pm on a beautiful, sunny and warm day.
Tagged: Lake District, Wainwrights, walking
Back in July 2021 Family Watson did a tour of the North West of Scotland. Hannah and I drove to Moffat on 27th June, stopping overnight before continuing to Dundee where we had another overnight stop. We met up with the kids in Dundee and on Monday, 29th June we set off on a lovely sunny morning on a trip from the east coast to Kerrera on the west coast.
I was very happy to be feeling fit again and, after a couple of wet-ish days, the weather was looking promising. After a quick breakfast I was driving back the way I’d come the previous evening. I planned to walk The Matterdale Dodds, the same walk I had completed just over five years ago, but this time using a different start point for a bit of variety. Five years ago, the walk had been a bit miserable, a thick mist had descended and I hadn’t seen much from the tops. Today was going to be a very different experience.
Tagged: Lake District, Wainwrights, walking
The government “Roadmap out of Lockdown” hit the next step as planned on 17th May, and my stay at YHA Ambleside was confirmed. I was going back to the Lakes, and I couldn’t wait to get out on the hills. Although I’d had a week off in April, I wasn’t really feeling refreshed and I was hoping that a concentrated period of solo walking might do the trick, and that’s how I’d planned the first part of the week. The end of the week would be a couple of days walking with my brother and nephew, both of whom had recently started taking walking more seriously, and I was looking forward to having some new walking companions. As usual, I stopped over in Southport…
Tagged: Lake District, Wainwrights, walking
Restrictions have been eased a little, but we’re still pretty much in lockdown. Teaching has come to an end for the year (my 26th in higher education), and normally I’d be reporting on a visit to the Lake District. Rewind 12 months, and I was saying the same thing. Back in December I had, rather hopefully, booked a week in the Lakes for April but YHA had refunded my money – ditto last year. I am, however, hoping to get up there at the end of May after the next easing of restrictions – my room is booked and my fingers are crossed. As I did last year, I took a weeks’ leave anyway. Fortunately (or ironically, whichever way you want to look at…
The last time I journeyed more than a few miles from home is now almost two months in the past. On the 19th March, I pulled in to London Waterloo on my usually rammed commuter train. Just six of us stepped onto the platform. That was the point at which I realised I probably shouldn’t even be there. I travelled on to Greenwich and had my meeting. Fortunately, I had the presence of mind to grab a spare webcam and a few other necessities. I watered my lovely ferns and went straight home. That was it, and the last eight weeks have been a strange mix of anxiety and comfort.