A walk from Wray Castle along Windermere

For the first time since lockdown began my son and I headed into the Lake District National Park. We have stayed away since things eased as it has been far too busy whilst we still have a pandemic. As it was a grey, slightly damp mid week day it was a lot quieter as we drove around Windermere and through a strangely quiet Ambleside which should have been bustling in July. Our destination was a family favourite of Wray Castle (National Trust):

Only the grounds and disabled toilets were open and there were only 4 cars, including ours, in the car park. It was the first time I had used this year's membership card to pay for parking. We were just using the car park as a starting point for a walk along the shore of Windermere:

You can walk all the way down to Claife Station and the Windermere ferry as it is only 4 miles away. We are planning to return to run that distance! This time we were just reminding ourselves of the route. It starts with a descent to the lake shore:

Jubilee School Walk

A slightly more unusual way to celebrate the Jubilee today, my children's entire school plus staff, plenty of parents and some younger siblings headed out on a 3 mile hike.


The school has around 150 children and they have a family system where each child is assigned to a school family which has children from all school years in it. If a sibling starts at the school they join the same group. For this hike the children were arranged into these families so that each group of around 12 had one member of staff and 1 or more parent helper.


After our safety briefing we set off on the walk in a very long crocodile through the lanes around the village. We had a teacher in a car in front as an outrider to slow down oncoming cars plus signs in the road to warn drivers. It was quite an impressive sight when you could see us all spaced out along the lane:

About half way round teachers dispensed water and biscuits to restore energy and then we descended back down the hill to the village. It was great to see how the older children in each family helped to stop the younger ones (aged 4 and up) from flagging.


All the parents that went on the walk were really glad they had gone. It was such a lovely experience. Here is hoping that they do it again! For more photographs please check out my Smilebox:

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Reasons to be Cheerful XXXIX ( #R2BC )

Here are this week's reasons to smile!


1) Blue skies and cherry blossom


There is plenty of both around this week which is guaranteed to make me smile. Walking past views like this of Kendal Green is a definite morale booster: 

2) Family walks


On Saturday I went to the woods at Brigsteer in search of bluebells which are just starting to come out. With 3 generations spotting wildlife and flowers as well as playing hide and seek it was a perfect afternoon for putting a smile on lots of our faces.


3) Neighbours


With the nice weather our cul-de-sac really comes to life after school and at weekends. The children play together (mostly nicely!) and the adults have time to chat. Last night I enjoyed coffee on my friend's front lawn with 3 other ladies whilst we watched our children playing knights and running around happily. This afternoon I found out more about my immediate neighbour as we stood and chatted for about 15 minutes after putting the recycling out! 


4) Diet


It was great to have a 2.5 lb loss on the scales this week. I went into the week determined to do better and did. Really need to keep the focus up though (she says whilst sipping a glass of wine!)


I am sure there are loads of other things I could have put on here but going to stop now and say look at everyone else's #R2BC:

Blowing away the cobwebs

We took a walk up the Helm near Kendal today to blow away Christmas cobwebs and make room for leftovers:

A knight to protect us from dragons

Strange trees

Our knight attacking strange tree!