Return to Rannadale knots

Whilst the weather is getting cooler (though we have had some pleasant weather this week), I thought I'd share a few photos from August.  Oh, how utterly thankful I am for our glorious 2 week trip up north to Northumberland- it feels all the more special now since we are in Lockdown.

From Hexham, we returned, one day,  to my favourite Lake District walk back in August.  Rannadale Knots.  This fell is famous for its bluebells in the Spring.  I've never seen them sadly. It is a walk I did twice with my Father in Law before he died and I hold it in great affection because of that association.  It is a fairly short fell with great views and nothing too scrambly during the course of the walk.

The greatest attraction is that where we park (oh we were soooooooooooooooo lucky to get free parking in the tiny free car park by the fell when the one which you pay for was full, a mile down the road and rammed full of tourists whereas we saw few people here) is right by Lake Crummock water so if you finish your walk all hot and sweaty, you can go and swim....which we did! It was the most dreamy and wonderful swim as it was dusk and even CBC swam- it's usually a fight to get him into water! The water was calm and cool.

Enjoy a few views from Rannadale Knots. 

I hope you've enjoyed these lovely views.

 

A tale of two birds

Have you ever been in a situation where you don't know what to do for the best and you probably end up making things worse?

CBC and I went to Lake Ullswater in the Lake District for May Bank Holiday weekend during half term.   The first day, we went to Pooley Bridge and had breakfast in a very nice cafe and then went for a brief walk by the lakeside.

It was as we were walking that it happened.
I was trailing behind, taking pictures and suddenly a bird swooped in front of me.  I quickly followed it with my eyes and saw a Coal tit land on a tree trunk.  I took the photo below.

 It flew away and then I could hear a chirping. 

 I investigated further and saw this little chick in the grass.

 It looked so sad.  I then noticed another dead one next to it. 
I called to CBC who had walked on further, not knowing what to do.

 He seemed rather unworried and we continued.   When we'd had a walk and it was time to return to the car, we walked back and I went to see if the chick was ok. 
When I got there, we noticed there were two of them and they were really calling out but not receiving any response.

I was really worried about what to do about them.    I wasn't sure what we should do and felt like we couldn't just leave them there.  CBC thought that the mother wouldn't be able to get them back into the nest and we could see the Mother flying in to a hole in the tree trunk further up.
CBC decided to climb the tree to see if he could post the babies back up.   We weren't sure what we could or should do (no reception on phone) but thought it was worth trying to get them back in the nest.

 He climbed up and got me to also try to pass him up a chick.

 It looked so happy being up the tree near the nest in his hand and he tried to post it into the hole but the other birds wouldn't let it in.  He tried to encourage it in but it seemed scared to go.

 He sat up there for quite a long time.  The bird seemed sad and stopped trying to get into the nest and refused to leave his hand.  Mum came back but wouldn't help it in and the other birds seemed quite hostile.

Finally, we gave up and CBC passed me the chick down.  I felt awful because we had touched them and not managed to get them back in.   I sat there worrying.  We decided to hunt for worms for the birds.   The little bird didn't seem to want to leave my hand.

 At this point, the other little one, who had remained on the ground, worked its way towards me and climbed onto my other hand (no photos sadly!).   I was utterly distraught over what to do about them and shed a tear or two over them.   In the end, we thought we would have to leave them as the parking was about half an hour overdue and it was very hard persuading the pair of them to leave my hand.

Later, we checked advice and it seemed that perhaps we shouldn't have touched them but in the circumstances, we thought we were helping.  I thought about those two birds for days and days, my heart heavy with the thought that we might have made the mother reject them.

What would you have done?

Scavenger Hunt March 2016

I've been rather remiss with my scavenging in the last few months. Thus, this has been a determined last minute scramble to ensure this does not ensue!
The prompts are provided by Greenthumb at Made with Love: http://suzzie43.blogspot.co.uk/p/scaerngera.html

Enjoy!

Local

Here's the local train service in Haltwhistle coming along the line!

City

 Here is the theatre in Newcastle City Centre. It is very impressive!

And here is another city sight- the impressive Tyne Bridge.

Stripes

The only picture I took this month with stripes was slightly blurry so I put it into HD in Picmonkey to make it look a bit more gritty!
This was in the Tower Art Gallery and Cafe in Newcastle's Artistic quarter. I liked the combination of violin, washing basket and typewriter.

Crisp

Hello Tyrells Sweet chilli and pepper!

RockStairs

 Several of us wondered if this was a typo and these were supposed to be Rock and Stairs separately  but here, I have indeed Rock stairs!  These stairs are formed from rocks on the ascent on Blencathra in the Lake District.

And here they are close up!

Tiles
Oops, will try to add this when I take one!

Street Art

We saw a few pieces of street art in Newcastle the other day. I liked that this was on a Paint depo!

Hair

Saw this clump of er- something on a branch and it totally looked like unkempt hair!

Measure

Hermione's Time Turner seems to measure time too as well as taking you back in time to save an Animagus and Hippogriff!

Large

This slice of Mars Bar crispie in the Barrowburn farm tea room was large to say the least as was the pot of tea. For £3.50 I had about 6 cups of tea and this delicious slice!

For one

 In the 1980's, London Transport introduced the Travel Card which meant you could travel on the bus, tube and train FOR ONE price.  There was a brilliant advert on TV in which Superman solved various problems using the bus, tube and train named "Super Car".  I was thus, very surprised to see the original SuperCar today at Barleylands!

Landscape

 Here's a view of the landscape coming down from Blencathra's summit.

We could see so much from here!


Did you take part in the Scavenger Hunt? Do share if you did!

xxx

Back to the knots

Last year, we took the most wonderful walk in the Lake District near Lake Crummock Water. At the time, WOMOTM (my father in law) was feeling his age and finding the peaks a little hard, but he loved this one. Likewise, I was wanting a peak walk that didn't have massive scary downhills.

Rannadale knots were the perfect walk for us so we said we would like to do the same walk again.

The morning after we arrived in Haltwhistle, we checked the weather and discovered the only day with good weather in the Lake District was supposed to be that day so we headed out.

The weather was perfect. Warm but not too warm. Not particularly windy.

I recommend taking a left out of the car-park and doing this peak that way round- you get a quick uphill and an easy downhill.

I'll let the pictures do most of their own talking but the views are incredible and you get up high quickly and satisfyingly.

CBC was, as usual, the fast mountain goat.

WOMOTM was keeping us safe from behind!

You can see the delightful sparkle on Lake Crummock Water.

I liked the lichen on this rock. Very pretty.

There is a well-marked route- secure steps going up.

There were a few pretty shrubs to see.

Hello WOMOTM!

As we sat waiting for WOMOTM, I spied this yellow bird which appeared on a rock.  Not sure if it is a Yellow wagtail or a Yellow Hammer or something else? Can anyone advise?

Later on as we sat, we saw a pair of canoes head towards this point and alight from their boats. Not sure where they went after that.

Finally, reaching the highest points, the grasses were blowing pleasingly.

Almost at the summit, there are amazing views and pleasant places to sit and eat sandwiches. We had the most truly stuffed full sandwiches from a place we saw on the way!

Here'sWOMOTM!

The summit with the two intrepid guys!

You can see across to other fells including Robinson I think!

The way down is very easy except for a well-marked rocky path. It has some larger drops but there's no scree so it's not difficult.

We even saw the Black sheep of the family.

Finally, at the end, I went for a little paddle in the lake. It was freezing but very restorative for boot-weary feet.

Have you been? Are there any comparable walks in the Lake District or otherwise that you can recommend?

xx