To the Lake District and back...

... in around three hours.

Photo by walkinguphills on Flickr

Normally it's at least a four hour drive to get there. Then, to take in all the scenery, to walk the fells, skirt the shores and nibble on the gingerbread, why that's a few days at least...

Well, thing was I didn't have time to escape and frankly the weather's not really that encouraging of outdoor activity these days. So I cheated... I watched a TV programme while on the cross-trainer at the gym.

I followed Herdwick sheep across their heaf. I rode the Ravenglass railway and soaked in the scenery like a sponge. I wandered lonely as a Wordsworth and watched Peter Rabbit dodge Mr McGregor through the hedgerows. I had such a good time that I actually set myself an additional program on the cross trainer so I could carry on watching. The sun even shone. It was a perfect Artist's Date.

Above all, I remembered childhood summers clambering the fells and dipping toes in the icy lakes and rivers. After our first trip there when the sun reflected the mountains in the still lakes we felt we had discovered Nirvana. It truly is a place of magic where coming across an ancient stone circle or the remains of a Roman fort is nothing out of the ordinary and romantic teenagers can dream about heroes striding across the fields. I have diaries crammed with memories, but sadly the sun never shone quite so spectacularly again, so there's a fair bit of rain-damage to my notebooks!