It's taken me such a long time to finally post about mine and Dan's first trip to the Lake District, which was all the way back in May! I can't believe how quickly these months have flown by and how many adventures we have been on since then. We loved the Lake District so much so that we have been back a few times, day tripping to Keswick to climb up to Walla Crag and then most recently a trip to Wasdale, taking in the views below Scafell Pike and across Wastwater. I've been meaning to post about our first trip to the Lake District and so I thought I would rewind a few months with a mini photo diary.

Arriving in the Lake District, looking out of the car window and seeing mountains ahead of us, we knew straight away that the Lake District was going to be full of adventure. Our home for the week was in a little lodge surrounded by trees in the village of Troutbeck, located in Windermere. It was the perfect place to come back to after walks amongst the woodlands, lakes and mountains.

We visited two of the Lake District's most famous forests, Grizedale and Whinlatter, which had the most tallest of pine trees I've ever seen. Along with babbling brooks, moss covered tree trunks and rocks, the forest floor covered with luscious green ferns and a sea of bluebells and wildlife everywhere. I loved how easy it was to plan our walk in the forest. The car parks were easy to get to, located close to the forest visitor centres which had plenty of information for the surrounding area. The walks were brilliant to navigate, with colour coded waymarkers to follow along your chosen route and on the map they were highlighted with levels of difficulty too. No two forests are the same, and these forests were certainly full of magic, I'd never been to any forests quite like these before.


The first lake on our to visit list was lake Buttermere, which we also tied in with a walk to Crummock Water too. Both of the lakes were absolutely beautiful, although I could say that about all of the lakes in the Lake District, each and every one of the lakes have their own piece of magic. Heading towards Crummock Water we wandered through a woodland section, full of bluebells and the sound of a cuckoo in the trees up above us. We followed the paths which then took us out towards the lake overlooking the mountains. We sat beside the lake and watched a paddle boat tied up on the shore, gently rock on the water and saw a lamb following it's mother towards the lake to drink some water. We headed back into the woodlands, across a footbridge and onto the road beside the lake where we made our way towards lake Buttermere. We stopped off for lunch and then set off to see the lake, surrounded by mountains.

We took a drive up to Ullswater where Aira Force waterfall is located. From the National Trust car park we took the Aira Force tree trail, that took us amongst a whole collection of different species of trees. I've seen plenty of waterfalls but nothing quite as impressive as this one, with it's little stone bridge above the rushing water and hidden amongst trees that stretch their branches out around it. We stood below, on a platform in front of the waterfall and watched the water rushing down the bank and then heading up some steps we stood at the top of the bridge. I imagined how even more spectacular it would look throughout autumn time, with the golden trees around the waterfall.

Derwentwater was another place we took a trip to, after parking the car at the lakeside car parking, we took a walk towards Friar's Crag viewpoint. It's really difficult to choose my favourite view from the trip, but looking out towards Derwentwater from the bench at Friar's Crag is certainly a close favourite. From this viewpoint you can see all the way down the lake towards Borrowdale, along with fells on either side of the lake of Cat Bells and Walla Crag.


On our last day, before driving home, we decided that we would spend some time exploring Windermere and climbed Orrest Head. It's a short walk up to the top of the hill, but it was a brilliant way to see the views of the whole stretch across lake Windermere. After stopping at Orrest Head for a short while, we decided to grab some lunch in Ambleside at a lovely café called The Apple Pie which is located right beside the beautiful Bridge House! After exploring Stock Ghyll Force, another waterfall located in Ambleside, it was time to head back home. Although sad to leave the Lake District after such a wonderful week away, we knew we would be back very soon to explore more magic of the Lakes.

Lake District links:

Grizedale Forest
Whinlatter Forest
Buttermere Valley & Crummock Water
Aira Force and Ullswater 
Derwentwater and Friar's Crag

It's been a while since I last posted on the blog. Since my last post Dan and I explored mountains and lakes in the Lake District, been on plenty of hikes in between, spent weeks working on some new photography and written submissions and have been working on some new little projects. Alongside all of that I've been feeling a little run down at times and I realised it was because I was trying to do too many things at once and overload myself with lots of different tasks each week. So I've now put my foot on the breaks and I'm beginning to slow down again.

Lud's Church is a moss-covered chasm located in Gradbach in the Peak District. It was caused by a giant landslip, creating a deep and dark crack in the earth with many nooks and crannies spreading for 100 metres. In the early 15th Century it was used as a secret place of worship. It's also known for it's mythical relations to Robin Hood and Friar Truck, who were believed to have fled to Lud's Church to go into hiding from the authorities. Lud's Church has plenty of magic and mystery surrounding it and is a

Wollaton Hall, built in 1588 is an Elizabethan country house surrounded by 500 acres of land, including beautiful gardens, peaceful woodlands and a magnificent lake. It's home to herds of fallow and red deer that can be found wandering the grounds, along with plenty of other species of wildlife you'll find around the parkland. It's also known for being Wayne Manor in the Batman movie, 'The Dark Knight Rises'.

Mam Tor, also known as the 'Shivering Mountain' or 'Mother Hill', is a 517m hill in the High Peak area of the Peak District. It's one of the most popular walks in the Peak District, with spectacular views over Edale, Hope Valley and parts of Kinder Scout.

Ladybower Reservoir is one of my favourite places to visit in the Peak District. It's a Y-shaped reservoir located in the Upper Derwent Valley of the Peak District that was built between 1935 and 1943, and opened on 24th September 1945 by King George VI. In the 1900's the Ladybower Dam was raised in order to reduce the risk of overtopping in a flood. The scenery around the reservoir is not to be missed, with beautiful views from the top of Bamford edge, across the heather strewn moorlands and woodland areas.

It's not often that I use my Olympus OM10 camera, but when I do I like to bring it along with me every now and then whilst I'm out and about and take a couple of shots. I had a go at shooting my first roll of colour 35mm film a while back in autumn, I gathered a couple of my favourite prints and shared them in a post which you'll find here.

The more I wander the woodlands and forests, the more I believe that something magical and mystical lies within each and every one of them. Because magic is found amongst the trees and burrowed beneath the old roots. It's found sweeping through the leaf strewn winding paths, under moss covered rocks and flowing along the babbling brooks and streams. Wherever the woodland paths lead you, there's always magic to be found.

I've been meaning to share my visit to Snake Woodland on the blog for a while now when we visited back in late November last year, just as all the trees were starting to lose their golden autumn leaves and you could sense that winter was on its way. Snake Pass is one of the most popular roads to drive along in the Peak District, situated between Glossop and Ladybower Reservoir in the High Peak area, that winds through the valley of rolling hills and alongside River Ashop. Driving along this road you are treated to beautiful views across the heather strewn hills and pine trees on either side of the road as you make your way towards Snake Woodland.

Even the smallest of woodlands hold something magical about them. I hadn't been out to the local woodland trail in a while and so on one Sunday morning I decided to wrap up warm and head out for a walk along the trail, snapping photos on my phone and even taking a few shots on my Olympus film camera.