Watching a river flow, near Appleby, Westmorland

We're on our way north to visit Helena's mum in Duror, north of Oban in Argyll. The traffic was not as bad as I'd feared for a holiday Saturday, although the torrents of rain at times was challenging. We'd booked a night in the Black Swan Inn in a small village east of Penrith in the Pennines. It was my birthday and the evening meal was perfect. Good food and plenty of it. 

On the way there we left the motorway at Tebay and deliberately headed on small roads for the last few miles. The rain was clearing and the atmosphere was misty. We stopped by a small bridge over the River Eden as we wanted some air and the chance of a blip. Woodpeckers stayed near the car and proceeded to take in the view, which she has called Lesser-spotted blipper in Cumbria. 

I was standing by the parapet of the bridge when I saw a kingfisher fly downstream, bank sharply and then fly back under the bridge to perch on the small groups of rocks in the river at the bottom of this scene.

It only stayed for a few moments before setting off downstream under the bridge at high speed in increasingly heavy rain.