Rain, not arf!!

It was raining when I woke this morning; that unrelenting 'wet' rain that is typical of the Lake District, but without which we wouldn't have those fabulous lakes. I'd been rained off from what I was supposed to be doing and really I should have gone to the pencil group. However, I really just fancied a lazy morning for a change.

So I brought my cuppa back to bed, listened to the rain pelting on the windows and read one of the books I've got on the go at the minute. I'm quite enjoying this one - The Lake of Dreams, it's called. Duty called after a while and I got up to go to the post office before it closed. I had the last picture from the exhibition to return to its owner, so I togged up in my rain gear to tackle the town centre. It's a while since I visited Keswick Town Centre; working out of town means I don't need to visit much. It was as busy as I expected on a rainy day, maybe even busier. But it was market day, so I took the opportunity to mooch about..

The nice surprise was that the market has some really good stuff for sale nowadays, especially good stuff to eat. Now I blame the cycle ride for this next bit - all those energy chocolate bars that they were handing out. Chocolate is one of those things that if I never eat it, I don't miss it. But as soon as I have some, I crave more!!  So of course, when I saw the giant chocolate muffins and gingerbread on the fab cake stall, it just had to happen...
Succumbing to my own warped justification, I  reminded myself that I'd used over 4000 calories last weekend, so what harm could a couple of cakes do? Unfortunately, I've used that excuse all week so I've clearly cancelled out all the good work!!

After feeding my face on a beautiful quiche and one of the cakes, I figured I'd better remove some of the calories. So Archie and I set off for Dodd fell. It was absolutely bucketing down, but I actually like walking in the rain. The only problem at this time of year is that it's usually too warm when you're cooped up in all the waterproofs. this kind of rain is usually confined to October, when it's cooler.

It was extremely quiet at Dodd and my phone had a great deal of trouble picking up the satellite signal because of the low clouds. But walking up through the tress, it was so beautiful. Rain like that makes everything so much greener and cleaner looking. And there are so many shades of green (back to flipping green again!!) Green is the predominant colour here in the lakes; and there's absouletly every green hue imaginable.  So my trek up the hill was preoccupied with how I could  match all those greens from my standard colour palette...

As we approached the summit (Archie and me) we entered the low cloud and visibility reduced to about 10 yards. Knowing the footpath up to Dodd summit like the back of my hand, I didn't need to see very far, but I could see how some people could have been spooked. I love imagining ghostly headless horsemen emerging from the swirling fog or the distant baying of hounds carried by the wind.....
Maybe I'll write a story about that one day...

Although the views were gone, I still found it stunning up there. At the very top, I looked towards what I knew was Bass lake and all I could see was thick, white mist, with the shapes of the small fir trees, the mossy stumps of the bigger tress that have been thinned out and the soon to bud heather receding into the gloom. Fabulous.
And I saw some fungi; it's really early to see this - it's usually August before I spot the colourful fungus growing in the woods.

On the descent it didn't take long to leave the cloud behind, but the rain stayed with us. Archie doesn't care what the weather does, he's constantly happy the whole time we are out; tail never stops wagging!

Once home, I tackled some housework, did my washing and ironing; and now between writing this I'm doing my entry for the cp exhibition, drawing along to some excellent music.  I've even cracked open a bottle of Newcastle Brown Ale.

Tomorrow should be interesting as I'm going to see the Dalai Lama with some girls from work. He's a very enlightened man, so I'm looking forward to hearing what he has to say.

Well, back to my drawing. wherever you are and whatever you are doing, have a lovely weekend.  Have a hug from me xx