Riggindale, what a day.

Quite often on Blip I've written about moments, about the need to look around and appreciate perhaps that one golden moment - the cloud break, the glimpse through the trees, the transitory beam of light - well not today folks.
I didn't have a huge window of opportunity -  family visiting, work to do, things to decide - but waking to a stunning day I knew I had to get into the hills. And on such a day Riggindale is one of my trusty 'go to' places - 25 mins drive and great straight from the parking place. Moving fast & light I felt great & wanted to push myself and see how, eleven months after the operation, the knee held up. I blasted past several people, remembering a cheery hello ( don't always get one back, but hey-ho), wondering how no-one else had an ice axe for what was a clearly still snow covered final ridge,  and made it onto the ridge proper in fifteen minutes. A quick swap of warm for windproof layers, and then upwards it was.  One hour, 600m of ascent and a couple of km later, I sat down on the summit cairn for High Street. I'd seen two chaps having coffee half way up, and a solitary nutter sorry, near naked fell runner, but ostensibly the hill was my own.
Coffee & a 9Bar (new favourite snack), and the intention was to blast down as quick as I'd come up - which I was doing, until, an unmistakable screach & the Riggindale Golden Eagle (the only one officially resident in the Lakes), swept up past me. Soaring on the stiff breeze there was enough time for me to get out the little camera with the thankfully great 20x zoom and grab a handful of shots - what a magnificent creature and what a privilege to be able to see him - clearly flying for the joy of it. All thoughts of rushing gone, I sat down, grinned and finished my coffee, still not a soul in sight.