Autumn in the Lakes
An October day in Keswick
Early on Monday morning I picked up my parents and we set off over the moors towards Middleton-in-Teesdale, heading for the Lake District. It was a slightly different route to the one we would normally take but my Dad had wanted to travel this way as he used to use the same route when he was travelling for work. We passed by Low Force and High Force and headed back up towards Alston, through the mist and drizzly rain. After a quick stop for a cup of tea, we set off again to Keswick.
We arrived in the Lakes around lunchtime and went straight to the chip shop for something to eat. The town was quite busy but the chip shop wasn’t too bad.
From there we went up the hill to the shops at the top end of the town. Dad had wanted to buy a new photo for their house from one of the shops so we had a good look around there. I had a few reasons for wanting to travel over for the day. I wanted to visit a couple of shops and I wanted to go to the lake and see it in the autumn. I’m certain I will have been over and see it in the autumn time but I don’t remember seeing it at this time of year. The Lucy Pittaway Gallery was the first stop on my list. We had a good look around in there and I bought a couple of Christmas presents and a notebook for myself. I love her artwork and there were a few prints that I would have loved to have bought but I don’t think my bank account would have been so happy about it!
The next shop on my list was down at the Pencil Museum. I wanted to upgrade my coloured pencils. I have been using a set from WHSmith for a long time and I have to say that they’ve been great but I wanted a slightly bigger range of colours and better quality. I had looked online first and found a couple of sets that were a possibility so I’ve now got a fairly decent set of “professional quality” pencils. They are quite noticeably better than the WHS set, but I think I’ll probably still use those for sketching and practise. We had a quick cup of tea in the museum cafe and then headed along to the lake.
It was quite a misty and moody day but that actually made it better in some ways. I was able to take some photos of the lake and Cat Bells, as well as the trees and plants in the park by the lake. We had another drink in the Theatre by the Lake cafe. There was a piano with an invitation to play it on the stand so I played one piece after a bit of persuasion.
We drove back over towards home around tea time just as it was starting to get dark. I had wanted to stop on the top of Hartside Pass to take some photos of the night sky but unfortunately I wasn’t able to photograph anything at all as it was thick fog all the way up to the top. We did stop for a few minutes at the top just to give my eyes a rest and stretch our legs. It’s not really the road you want to be on in thick fog!
We stopped again in a little village called Nenthead on the way back. We often stop there for a break on the way there and back. It has a lovely park which we used to love as children and there are toilets which are maintained by volunteers in the village. It was completely dark by the time we arrived so we frightened the rabbits that are often up on the bank by the carpark at the mine! We took a few photos of the Remembrance Day memorials too.
It was a lovely day in one of my favourite places and it was great to see it in the autumn time with all the beautiful colours. It was also so nice to have a little bit of time to relax and switch off.
See you next week!