Rydal

Simmo and I were due a catch-up, so she suggested a walk around Rydal, which as it turned out was an excellent choice as we twice bumped into another mutual friend; Jen, who we hadn’t seen for a bit, who was out for a walk with her mum.

We were laughing at the fact that it was refreshing to see the whole of two new faces.

I wished I’d baked and brought some more cookies with me too. Wanting to throw caution to the wind, I’d added some nice, dark Lindt orange chocolate with a hint of almonds to my cookie dough and I’ll be honest, it had paid dividends. We scoffed them down as we wandered, encountering Jen again on the homeward stretch with be-crumbed faces soon to be warmed with some hot chocolate.

We also encountered wild swimmers “they’re not ‘wild’ swimmers, BigD, they’re ‘swimmers’” hurling themselves into Rydal Water and gasping as the cold water enveloped them. We questioned their wearing of a bobble hat whilst swimming in a regular bathing costume in a freezing cold lake, but no logic was to be found in any of it.

Having left Simmo, I stopped in Bowness on my way home, enjoying the brief respite from tourists (they’ll be back) and wandered to the childish-giggling inducing, Cockshott Point for a couple of photos. I drove the long way back to get up high to Gummers How for a sunset shot, but as you can see from the extra, I was a little late unfortunately.

How nice it was to feel the sun on my face and be in good company somewhere completely different today.

Highly recommended.