Pines and picnics...

After a lovely Christmas and New Year down South (I'll write about this in the next few days) we have had the first few days of no rain....hurrah!! Apparently we're heading into a really cold snap for the next month so decided to get out and enjoy the cold, crisp, dry and sunny day we had on offer today by heading back over to Grizedale Forest.

We are slowly working our way through the different trails, so today it was the turn of the Grizedale Tarn Trail, 3.5 miles of beautiful forest walk with the added bonus of a natural tarn and sculptures along the way. Although it was a chilly day, the sun shone through the trees and we found a lovely little spot for our lunch but I'll let the pictures do the talking......

The start of the trail...

Through the arch...

with the sun shining through the trees...

over the bridge...

winding up the musical trees as we went.....

That's one big stile!!

Over a stream ...

Nice place for a picnic...hot soup all round..

A very peculiar man-made channel in the middle of the forest.....

What's that bright shiny thing above the pines?

The fox!

A rather large, wooden spiky thing

The newest sculpture...'Ben the serious rambler'

A fence!!

and it goes on....

We found the tarn! 

Pulling my stomach in whilst trying to smile...not easy!!

Grizedale Tarm...ahhhh...

Interesting stile with drop down cover to keep deer out (or in!)

Over another stream....

Cairn tree

On the homeward stretch, back at the bridge.

Time for hot chocolate!

Here comes the ferry to carry us homeward....

  

Back again!

I know, I know it's been ages. Just felt a bit underwhelmed by everything for a while but hey it happens to the best of us....(doesn't it??!!)

We've just got back from a few days down in the lovely Forest of Dean staying in one of the Forest Lodges, courtesy of my Mum and Dad. There really is something magical and calming about woods even when it's wet and soggy under foot! The kids had the freedom of cycling around freely without too much worry about cars and we enjoyed far too much coffee and cake!

Two weeks ago we had decided to cut right down on the amount of wheat we ate and had both felt so much better for it, and whilst we thoroughly enjoyed pigging out on holiday, we feel yucky and bloated now so we'll be getting back to low or even no wheat diet this weekend. If anyone has any good recipes to use, the areas we struggle with are breakfasts, bread and something sweet for evenings.....!

Exciting algae!

We are a bit busy this weekend, so you probably won't hear much from us for a couple of days. Tomorrow myself and E (DD) are off to a training day at the Freshwater Biological Association to learn all about identifying algal blooms! Sounds exciting doesn't it? What do you mean No??  Well, it may not sound too exciting but anyone who lives near lake Windermere knows that every year we seem to have a real problem with blue/green algae which can cause illness to humans and even death to small animals like dogs. That means no lake swimming for the kids and dogs alike which when you're sitting by a lovely lake on a hot,sunny day can be a real challenge!! The Great North swim was cancelled last year because of suspected blue/green algae so it's something that's important and needs to be monitored. That's where we come in! We will be part of a team of volunteers who will monitor a small area along the shore of the lake through the year to collect any samples etc so the very intelligent people at the FBA can figure out whats going on with the algae. I'm actually quite looking forward to it.

Then it's off to a friends party in the evening and walking on Sunday.....have a great bank holiday weekend!

p.s. did you know that some algae can look like beautiful spiral bracelets (according to E!)