Shap, where sheep may safely graze

On our long drive back to Stroud from the increasingly wet West Highlands, we stopped at Shap, in the Lake District. I'd read online about a National Trust Place called Keld Chapel, which was once associated with Shap Abbey, though located a few miles away.

As soon as we left the Motorway and left the long, narrow main street of Shap, we drove straight into real Lake District territory: small lanes lined with dry stone walls and sheep folds, hills and valleys undulating. I knew then I was in the land of PaulaJ's blips.

It turned out that the ruined Shap Abbey was very much available for viewing (it's English Heritage, so wasn't mentioned in the National Trust Handbook!) so we got out and soaked in the solid stone tranquility of the site, with its river rushing by. Had it not been for the little quad bikes buzzing around the adjacent farm, we could have been in another century. At one point sheep were driven from the fields down the track next to the fence in the centre of my picture, across the ancient stone bridge and to the lands beyond. Both dogs and modern vehicles were used for the exercise.

CleanSteve has written about Shap Abbey, and also blipped the very beautiful Keld Chapel that we visited next. Please do take a look! I'd have blipped the chapel myself, so striking was it, but he has beaten me to it. Photography at the Abbey was difficult because the sky was white-hot most of the time, and the remaining tower is so high, so I have gone for a landscape shot instead. I hope it conjures up some of the peacefulness of the place. It was a very white-sky boring shot, so I used the comic filter in Photogene for the iPad to make it more textural.

We arrived back home about 9.45, having left my mother's at 10.45 and done a lot of footling around in Cheshire to avoid long queues on the M6. We were deeply happy to see Bomble (cat ) again, and delighted to see our own bed, too!

I also found a poignant family artefact/piece of history that I managed to photograph this morning , but I am going to save the story for another day, as it it has a Great War theme. I do hope that enough people sign up on the Life Writing course I am enrolled on!