Fell Walks and Canoeing

Below: my photo of beautiful buttermere!
Hello all,
Well Jamie returned and so I got the weekend off!
It was Tom's 21st on Saturday, and the weather was beautiful so we were tempted into walking up Haystacks which was Alfred Wainwright's favourite mountain, and where his ashes were scattered. We carried on to another hill called Fleetwith Pike which looked right down Buttermere with some amazing views!
We ended up walking in thye glorious sunshine for about 4 and half hours - and with the drive less than hour it was a lovely way to spend the day!
We also went up a little hill called Mellbreak the other week, which is a nice fell - where we didn't see another human being at all!

If you're interested in my walks I've added a folder called Fell Walks to the Photo Gallery and in there are a few pictures. Tom's also put a few up in a folder called The Lake District.

On Sunday the weather held, and Tom, a couple of friends and I went canoeing on Derwent Water.

Our friends 'Gulston' and Stuart came out with us - and were very amusing to watch. I can't talk because my steering skills are limited, but watching the two of them zigxag around and then land the canoe at the marina was quite funny! I've put a photo up of the two of them in the red canoe, dodging away from the other boats moored up.

Don't worry I tried to stick to the front of the boat so that the other lake users were spared my slightly dodgy steering!
It was really fun to get back on the water - though I did relearn a little lesson.
A motor boat passed in front of us and as I saw the wash I thought it would be fun to pick up a bit of speed and 'jump' the wave! Only we landed in between the next wave which came over and into my lap!! Oh well when you go out on the water, you can only get wet as far as your skin!

I'm hoping to get to the Honister Mine Via Ferrata route depending on when I go back to Uni too. In case you didn't know Via Ferrata is a sort of extreme mountain walking / rock climbing, but you're harnessed to a wire cable all the way along the route. (The same as climbing Harbour Bridge which I did in Sydney) It's only £20 and it's so close to us it has to be done! If you're interested search for 'Honister slate mine via ferrata' on Youtube to watch a video about it.

It's a shame that more people don't realise what a bounty Cumbria has to offer when they come to stay with us! The site is perfect for anglers but if your other half isn't so keen there's plenty to do and see around us!!

If you'd like to go back to the Lonsdale website please click here: http://www.lonsdalepark.co.uk/

New and ever more interesting ways of falling into a lake.

Yesterday Dad and I set to work on building a new jetty for the lake at home. To allow us to suspend our baby carp rearing nets in the perfect depth of water you understand, nothing to do with creating a fishing platform in front of the new house!

So with Dad's friends Ray out to help us we pile drove two old railway sleepers upright into the lake for our posts. It was a hairy manoeuvre and at one point Ray was yanked quite aggressively by the digger bucket - I thought he was going in! But he recovered it nicely.

Dad had me jumping from the bank into the out-stretched digger bucket and back to cut ropes from the sleepers - as you do you know. Slippery clay bank to wet water filled digger bucket? Of course!
As Ray said, when he woke up he thought, wallet, keys, watch. But not really hmmm lets build a jetty!

Anyway we got the cross member sleeper over and I was stood atop it to direct Dad as he used the digger to square it up on the top.
'It's a bit high at that end Dad!'
'Right you stay at that end....'
CRASH the digger bucket landed on the far end of my sleeper and my end rose up. A slight impression of a a windmill and some canny footwork kept me dry.
'Flippin' heck Dad, I'm not sure I'll survive another of those!' I shouted.
But Dad had lifted the bucket even higher and dropped it even faster....
CRASH
My end jumped up into the air and I found myself thrown backwards, head first into the lake.
The very cold lake, the colder that I would have anticipated, very cold lake I told Dad. I believe most of the anglers on Lonsdale heard my colourful descriptions of the temperature of the water, as well as Dad laughing.
Worse still I'd lost my hat as I was flung in! I could see it where Dad pointed. Drifting away the Kangaroo leather (I'd bought it, worn it and cherished it all around Australia) taking on water at an alarming rate just a couple of inches visible above the surface.
Luckily my dodgy front crawl had me on the scene in time to rescue my beloved hat! The only damage was a slight bend to the feather in the band.
No harm done!

I climbed out onto the sodden and soggy bank, looking very much like a monster from the deep as Dad stopped laughing to tell me how funny I'd looked.
Apparently my legs and feet had attempted to recover my torso and remained on the sleeper for a slit second longer than expected, then suddenly they followed me in, almost like they belonged to someone else. This description obviously set Dad chuckling again.

I think when Dad and I get working together we really should set up a video camera on the job just in case. That's twice in four days we could have earned £250 on you've been framed now!

So we've added another dive possibility to my repertoire of interesting, accidental but always stylish methods of falling into lakes!

Ghosts, Aerials, Babies (Walter Jnr), and little blue birds, but not necessarily in that order!

Good morning!

I'm sitting in the cafe writing the diary up this morning as we have a fault on our telephone line at home - so unfortunately there might be a delay until the next day before we can reply to emails - depending on when they come in - we will get back to you ASAP though!

So for those of you interested in the fishing first:
Last night Phil (who many of you will know as a regular leader in our matches) managed to land a 21lb mirror carp on his float tackle, on a single grain of sweetcorn! This is a great example of why all anglers should carry a landing mat - not just on our site but everywhere - it's good practice and looking after the fish which is the main thing! Well done Phil!
This last week there's been a selection of other big fish out including a 25lb common, a 17 1/2 grassie and the usual host under and around the 15lb mark.
Unfortunately I've haven't managed to find the time to get out fishing yet - here's hoping that when Dad's new lad Jamie returns from Eygpt I'll get chance!

So now for a few of my little stories!

Vera who's stays with Phil has been telling me some of the craic this week. Apparently one of our guests found themselves alone on the bank in the dark at about 10pm. We've had the odd lightening storm - but on this particular evening the sights had nothing to do with lightening! Our guest is absoloutely convinced that the ghost of a lady riding a horse came across Lonsdale (from the point) towards her!
This isn't the first slightly odd report we've had - but I've never heard a story of a lady to do with Lonsdale - I'll try and do some research and let you know if I find anything!

Thursday night found me fighting with a freeview box. Cumbria has been the first area which was subjected to freeview and the digital switch over. As part of the change over we have to keep retuning our boxes (which when you have 18 of the things is slightly more of a challenge)
However this one was quite the problem! After an hour of swapping boxes, cables, retuning, moving aerials, getting up onto the roof, I was getting nowhere. So I did what all strong independent kids do. I rang my Dad!
So out comes Dad, and of course together we came up with a plan. A Drinkall plan. Now at University I'm well known for the 'Drinkall plan'. Unfortunately every once while a plan gets away from you.
Dad decided that it was definately the tree behind the caravan causing the problem all of a sudden. (No I'm not sure why but I went with it) So I clambered up the branch hanging ominously over the Caravan and aerial and attached a strap. And we began to saw.
And saw.
As the branch cracked I was hanging off the strap to try and pull it out away. But I'm only a little Drinkall! Dad dived round to grab the strap, and together we were heaving away. Really jumping and yanking on it. The branch was cracking ominously.
And on our biggest heave......... nothing!!
The branch was cut through and we'd heaved, what was going on? - the branches were clear! Dad turned round to look at me.... And watched the horror leap up my face as completely unaided the branch crashed down onto the aerial!
Oh dear! (Bugger! we said)
Luckily we lifted it off and there was only a few bent vanes.
Inside the van there was still no picture! Damn! 3 hours after starting and still no picture!
In the end I came up with a plan of my own. A plan so cunning Baldrick, you could pin a tail on it and call it a weasel! I hooked up the aerial from the nearest caravan to the problem Telly. Every aerial lead we possessed was taped up and strung tenously through the grass and trees.
Bingo! Perfect picture!
Don't worry I've found the fault and we've fixed the problem permanently now, with a lovely picture.

Now the really exciting news is our baby fish! Dad and I have been collecting some of the baby carp from the lake at home. So we have our very own baby Mark Simmons pure breds!
They're very cute! And we're looking after them to make sure in 5 years time they'll be real monsters!
I took a photo of one last night to show you, we've got both mirror babies and common babies.
So Dad and I went out to check them when we finished about 7 o'clock and we were just moving the babies over when a flash of bright blue and emerald green, a Kingfisher swooped Dad's head!
He must have been upset that we were moving in on his territory!
This is our second pair, one pair live around Reed Lake, and this little fellow lives down at home.
I settled down onto the bank to watch him fly round and hunt.
It's not a bad life is it!
This is Walter Junior!
(In case you don't remember Walter is the huge monster carp that Dad is hunting after - and he's named for a fish from a film called 'On Golden Pond' - A great film that I think most of you would love!)

The Osprey

Collin has sent some pictures for us of the Osprey this year - Have a look at that!

I'll get them up on the pictures section as soon as I can!