Descent to Buttermere

The view down Honister Pass west towards Buttermere. On the left side of the picture, Fleetwith Pike towers darkly above the Pass. On the right, the top of Robinson is partially obscured by cloud. The Pass follows a classic U-shaped glacial valley.

This is a scene that anyone who has holidayed in The Lake District will be familiar with, even if they don't recognise Honister: low, grey clouds hovering over the fell tops. But let's not forget that we have had a week of bright weather, and even at this exposed altitude it was still warm today.

There's a long history of slate quarrying and mining at Honister, and the slate mines are the last working in Britain.

This was a brief stop to take a few photographs as we reached the top of the Pass. There weren't many other photo opportunities today.

A year ago: a sort of SP. The autumn is earlier this year if our Katsura tree is anything to go by. This year it had lost all its leaves before the end of last week. It took me by surprise, I never managed to get a decent photograph of it.