Debs booked a 5-day break in the Lake District to get away from school work, etc during the half term – a terrific idea! We stayed in a lodge that was very well kitted-out indeed and served as a base to explore some of the parts we had not been to before. The weather was very grey, but the heavy rain held off until the last day. I took the opportunity to try out some new areas of photography that I had not really attempted before and was quite pleased with the results. I will endeavor to read up in these areas now to improve!
A trip to Ullswater on a misty morning led to a nice walk after a short Steamboat trip to halfway down the lake. I do think that they should really consider the Wet District or Mud District as more accurate names though. Tilly did really well, but the distance took its toll at the end. Ezri was a real trooper and just marched on through the mud with a huge grin on her face – not hard to see which one is the outdoor child.
We went to Keswick the following day, not somewhere we had been to before. The drizzle took some of the shine off the visit, but did lead to some nice landscape shots taken with a £60 Canon that goes to show that you don’t need to spend a fortune to take nice pictures – a comment and a great landscape shot from a friend, Roger, led me to leave my SLR at home for this trip and take out my compact-for-bad-weather-and-possible-breakage-visits. I didn’t really need to convert any of the lake shots into black&white either it was so overcast 
The next day was reserved to go and see Ken and Annie – Ken was my best buddy at school and he lives in the Lakes with his ace wife Annie and two (very funny and energetic) boys. It’s not often we get to meet up, so I was really looking forward to this. Annie is a wonderful photographer and I tried not to pick her brains too much and bug her with questions, hope I got away with it. They suggested a trip out to a nearby wildlife park; it was fabulous. Even the cold breezy weather was not an issue as the layout and animals resulted in a very interactive experience. This led to a good opportunity to get some nature shots, not something I had tried out before. I am quite pleased with some of the results.
Must try not to leave it so long in-between seeing people who mean so much.
A couple of Debbie’s colleagues were also staying in the same place (cheers for the recommendation) and it was good to meet new people and see the kids mixing well and playing happily. I got a couple of shots of them too, and realised that shooting kids is my favourite subject (actually, that sentence sounds dodgy on various levels!).
I am loving the hobby-photography, love the Lake District and, especially my wife (aahhh!) for sorting it out – a super half term week.
