The Newlands round, Lakeland

We decided to have a weekend to tackle the Newlands Round, and an edge that I'd always wanted to do, but never had - Striding Edge! On arrival in the lakes, we were greeted with THIS sky - not a good omen! However, as any walker knows, you just can't ever be sure of what you'll get in the Lakes, and what we ended up with was the PERFECT weather and day for our first walk, the Newlands round. The second day was a different story though....

When we got there, we HAD to do the walk round Derwentwater, and take the pics.
A nice shot of a gull and the fells.


Those ducks should be on a wall somewhere.

The ubiquitous shot along the jetty.

A bit of a squall on the fells.

The morning of the first walk. What would today bring, looking at this sky, you'd be pessimistic!

Derwentwater, with Blencathra behind.

A shaft of sunlight hits Derwentwater.

A fell runner tackles Cat Bells.

Looking into the valley as we climb above the snow line.

This stormy sky suggests a bad day, but it turned out to be PERFECT!

Me on the path up to High Spy.

Just a smattering of blue sky, but all day, we had NO rain.

The sun hits the fells.

Blencathra, from High Spy.

On top of High Spy.

Frozen waterfalls!

Looking across to crags from the summit.

One very happy chap!

Dale end summit & a fantastic sky.

Looking back down the Newlands valley on a perfect day.

Cat bells.

Some stunning views from Dale Head, on a perfect day.

Someone with a sense of humour!

Always a snowman on the tops!

Looking back to the summit of Dale end.

The Scafell massif.

Looking to Buttermere & Crummock water.

The path to the top.

A frozen cairn.

The ridge path down, below the snow line.

Looking to Blencathra.

Just LOOK at that view!

A lovely view of Skiddaw from our hotel balcony.

After that fantastic walk around Newlands, we were elated and ready for day two.

Our aim today was a famous walk that I'd never done (and still haven't)

Striding Edge. We set off from the valley on a crisp, cold day. There was a bit of snow on the tops, but we hoped it would stay dry and bright.

It didn't!

The higher we climbed, the more it snowed.

This was our last view of our goal before a white out - Striding Edge.

Looking across Ullwater valley from hole in the wall.

OK - let's play a game - where's the path????

A bleak sight!!! This snow was getting worse, and driving at us at 45 degrees, not good.

This was where I made the decision that today, we would turn back. Our tracks on the path behind us were covered in a matter of minutes with fresh snow.

At last we come out of the snow, and reach 'the hole in the wall'.

After this, we made a safe exit, and lived to walk another day!

Bonsall hen races 2007

HEN RACING, HEN racing, I hear you say??? Yes - it's an old Derbyshire tradition, in the same vein as Toe wrestling 

 http://www.feetforlife.org/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=695&d=11&h=24&f=23 )

It was all the idea to re-introduce it to Bonsall by one of the locals, Jeff Punchard. He gave the idea to Alan, the landlord of the Barley Mow, and since then, it's flourished. there are other hen races locally, notably at a village called Ible.

This is where it all takes place, on the car park of the Barley Mow (the white building).

This is a grainy picture of Jeff, taken at night, with a mobile phone camera, sorry I don't have a better one of him. He's a damn good whistle player too, and is the life and soul of the sessions on Friday nights.

Here's Alan, the landlord of the Barley Mow. And here's the famous tee shirt .

These are two of the younger competitors, or should I call them 'entrants'?

This was the finest hat I've seen in a long time, and do you know, they didn't eve mention it on the PA system. I thought it was really good, so I give it pride of place on my blog.

Here's Alan again, showing his hen the arena, and showing US, the audience, what a fine figure it was.

Here he is again, marking out the finish line while his hen looks on.

Let the dog see the rabbit (or, in this case, the public see the hen).

If it was duck racing, I'd say he was a quack!

(Useless fact - did you know, a ducks quack has NO echo, and no-one knows why!).

The all-important rules of the races.

Heat one finally gets off - after Alan has sold enough beer!

THEY'RE OFF!!!!!

Oh, ohhhh - this looks like trouble!

Sure enough, a fracas ensued. As 'hen-pecking' is against the rules (see board), both these hens were disqualified.

She doesn't look too keen, does she?

(And it was HER hen).

This one went to the line - then promptly turned around and walked AWAY from it??

CONCENTRATE!

"HEEEERE, CHUCK, CHUCK, CHUCK........"

Heat 2 well under way. (But can you see the stuffed fox being used???)

A SERIOUS business, this hen racing.

This character appeared in the arena, the costume didn't help him win though!

And that was it - the hen races were over for another year.