Wanderings with Chris, Alex, Elisabeth……..Cumbria

Family holidays. Love them or hate them they are an integral part of the trial by summer school holidays. Ours usually consist of mum, dad and two out of three kids now, with the usual bickering and moaning and wanting  to go home. We’re used to it and a holiday wouldn’t be the same without it. We had a weeks camping owed to us from last years flooded camp site, so we upgraded to a caravan as i didn’t think we had it in us to camp this time, just too tired, and it was great! We planned our week so we had flexibility for the weather and managed to fit in some great days out. Its done us, me and Chris, a  great deal of good to get away from the trials of cancer treatments, (my mum) and the angst of late teenage, (eldest child) . From the get go i said this would be a holiday on MY terms and they would do what I wanted to do and you know what, they did. We went to all of the places I wanted to go and take photos, they even enjoyed themselves and i took them where they wanted to go and took photos there too. Re visiting places was great and i also found a ‘tin tabernacle’ hidden at the side of the main road in a copse of trees, hidden and abandoned since the mid 80’s, which was a fantastic find. I love going to Cumbria because the land is totally different from the Wirral. It has High hills, deep valleys, folds and dips and lots of forestation.  It’s also inland so the Lakes are spectacular, we went to Windermere and cruised the lake which is great fun, Ambleside to see the house on the bridge, Penrith, Ulswater, Kendall, Appleby, we visited waterfalls which were fantastic because of the rain, South lakes wildlife park to see the snow leopards and we also took it easy, resting, relaxing and having family time together, yes we were one short but we can make up for that another time.

I was a little worried about the new car and if it would live up to expectation as its smaller but we did ok, no one was squashed, all our stuff fitted in the roof bag and boot and we learned some good stuff about the car, so good all round, i will be posting on my other blog wanderingsinafiat500l.wordpress.com my findings if you are interested.

 

Our Summer Holidays are now over! Officially.

Summer. You think of warm/hot sunny days, warm BBQ evenings and balmy nights. Well maybe in other countries but not in England this year. This year has been a bit wet to say the least. It has been confirmed that  summer 2012 in England and Wales has been the biggest washout for a century, with  the Met Office saying that it has been the one of the dullest, coolest and the soggiest since 1912.

We had been scheduled to go to Cumbria last week but received a call the day before leaving to ask if we still wished to go as they were giving out boards and tarps to all campers as it was a bit muddy. We decided to go to Derbyshire  instead! While we were there we read in the paper that  Cumbria was hit by heavy rain and flash flooding on Thursday forcing people to leave their homes and causing a train  to derail. A landslide is thought to have caused the derailment of the  train, which was travelling towards Sellafield nuclear plant.  Summer this year has had just 399 hours of sunshine, it has also been cool, oh really, with a mean temperature of 14C (57F),  0.4C below  average. We have experienced, some more than others, 366.8mm of rain, not quite the 384.4mm seen in the summer of 1912 but give it time.

But. Our Summer has not been all about bad weather. We have had three great weeks camping. Two weeks in Bath and Dorset and a week in Derbyshire. We have visited some fantastic places like Longleat, The Tank Museum in Bovington, Dorset, The National Brewery Centre, Burton upon Trent,   Donington Park Race Track, Derby, Twycross Zoo, oh lots of lovely places and visited with a cousin and his family not seen for many years. One of the high lites of my summer holidays was the visit to Brownsea Island off the coast of Dorset. I have been a Scout leader for over eight years and i have always said i would visit the home of Scouting and i have, we had a lovely day, it was sunny, walking around the Island and visiting the Stone which marks the site of the first Scout camp in 1907. There were several Scout and Guide groups camping on the Island and we were waved to and offered tea whenever we met a group, one leader even gave my daughter a rather long peacock tail feather which is sitting in a vase on my sideboard. We had a great day and enjoyed the boat ride back to the mainland. I dont think the children got bored all holiday but i know they wont want to go back to school this week, shame. Unfortunately we missed the Olympics but we will get to see the second week of the Paralympics  and will be able to cheer on our favorite athletes.

My holidays have been about reconnecting with my children, relaxing with my husband and taking lots of photographs, i think i have managed all three! It will be a wrench when everyone is back at work or school and life is back to normal but on the other hand it will give me SOME peaceful days in which to work on my photos and put them up on my blog, flickr, viewbug etc. I have  put a few photos below which are my particular favorites from this summer, i hope you enjoy them. Oh and here is looking forward to  October half term!