Alcock Tarn

Many moons ago, when I was a lad, my parents used to take us on holiday to the Lake District.

We did quite a few walks, but one of the ones that always stuck with me was the walk up to Alcock Tarn, just outside Grasmere. For little legs it is a fair challenge, but once at the peak, the views made the sweating, moaning and cursing all worthwhile.

Fast forward to 2010 and I did the same walk again with my eldest (who was 5 at that point) and we had a lovely couple of hours with minimal, sweating, moaning and cursing.

Jump to today and I took all three of my children, 5-now-14, 6 & 5 on that same walk, but this time we reversed the route and got the majority of the sweating, moaning and cursing out of the way early on and celebrated our ascent with a picnic I had prepared the night before. The picnic included a particularly gooey flapjack I had also prepared the night before in a bid to keep them fuelled by sugar.

It was a curious day in that it was one where you maybe didn't realise how much you were enjoying it at the time? Because whilst it was a little stressful trying to manage the needs, ability and temperament of all three of children (in addition to my own), they all got stuck into it and it gave us time to talk. The youngest - crickets and how they make their noise. The middle - cricket and how England are nailed on for victory tomorrow. The eldest - she was ahead most of the way, so I'll catch up with her later!

Anyway, any day that includes Pain au Chocolat, a glorious walk in the sunshine, a picnic, ice cream and fish n chips for tea can't be all bad AND they all survived, so I'm calling it a win!

Pictured is the view from somewhere near Alcock Tarn over Grasmere and the village.