Shiney's Lake District

Link to other threads on 'Shiney's Travels'
http://gardenerscorner.co.uk/forum/threads/shineys-travels.61299/

Kandy suggested that I have this topic of my Lake District pictures. I'll add more whenever I get a chance.

You can get beautiful views without going up too high and without having to be extra fit. These photos have been taken when I have been leading small groups of people that are that have, mostly, been retired for some years.

Bassenthwaite Lake - the only Lake in the Lake District (the others are all Meres, Waters or Tarns etc). This is in the North West of the Lakes.




This photo is taken from the same spot as the last one and has to be the best setting for a church that I can think of. St Bega's is only a small church with a very big history going back nearly a thousand years. It sits on the lake shore with Skiddaw in the background - one of the four mountains that are over 3,000 feet.




Decorated for a wedding.




Low-tech lawn mowing.




Early morning mist over the lake with the fellside across the lake being where the Ospreys have been breeding for a few years. In the Thornethwaite Forest Visitor Centre they have giant screens where you can watch, and hear, the parents feeding the babies as it happens. when the babies are in the nest there are guards around the area 24 hours a day.



---------------
shiney

 

The stroll down to the church and lake is a good time for comtemplating the wonders of nature.




A friendly horse on the path. He was quite happy to just be petted.




------------
shiney

 

The inside of St Bega's is small but pretty.



Bassenthwaite Lake could be the resting place of Excalibur as St Bega's was thought to be the church that Tennyson was referring to in "Morte d'Arthur" when he described Sir Bedivere carrying the dead King Arthur

"to a chapel in the fields,
A broken chancel with a broken cross,
That stood on a dark strait of barren land."

In this photo the sun was just setting over the church.




There are many beautiful areas in the Lake District and one of my favourites is Borrowdale. At the southern end of the valley is the little hamlet of Seatoller which sits below Honister Pass (Buttermere is the other side of the pass. The valley then runs up to Derwent Water and Keswick.

This is the upper half of the hamlet with a few more houses and farm (plus the Yew Tree Inn) in the trees to the left.



and a little further up the valley

 

Walking up towards a seldom visited hill called High Doat the views get better and better.



On High Doat the top is unusually flat and artists sometimes go up there to paint. A view across the lower end of the valley towards the east with the village of Rosthwaite below. Rosthwaite hosts the Borrowdale Show and Shepherds Meet on the third Sunday in September and is worth a visit if you are nearby.



The view to the north shows Castle Crag sitting in the 'Jaws of Borrowdale'. This used to have castle or fort on the top hundreds of years ago and there are just the remains of some defensive ditches there now. It is rather a foreboding hill that is visited quite often.
Both High Doat and Castle Crag are just over 1100 feet high.