Davenpete

Today I walked up to Force Crag Mine up above Braithwaite near Keswick. It's an old lead, tin and bauxite mine. It was bloody windy but, good skies for photos. Dx

I actually ventured up a real fell today - along the river and then up and over the long ridge of High Rigg between Thirlmere and Keswick. The weather was great once the low cloud burned off. Really chuffed with the first one. Dx

Manky weather again today so I just went for a wind blown, rain lashed trudge round Wedholme Flow, a couple of miles from home. It's a lowland heath, with about half of it partially abstracted for peat that is being re-wilded. Was hoping to capture some frisky frogs, toads and newts - I've obviously missed all the fun as it was much more 'Solway Land of Spawn' than 'Cumbria Amphibian World' today. Dx

Given all the rain I thought it was a good day to visit the fabulous Lodore Falls in full flow above Derwentwater. Bovine route planning meant I totally missed the easy path and essentially ended up scrambling straight up alongside the falls. I then continued up the river to Watendlath Tarn and returned in a big figure of eight - though the weather closed in and was really grotty by the time I was descending to the car. Dx

Another visitor to the Pete & Dave's Greylag Zoo - a female Great Crested Newt on its way down our steps, presumably, looking how skinny it is, having been busy breeding in the old pond just over the lane from us. I gave it a lift down stairs as I presume it wasn't after coming in the house (though that's the front doorstep in the background). Dx

Went for what turned out to be a 17km+ mondo slog today - not one I'll be repeating in a hurry - a full circuit of Wastwater - the trouble is that about 1/5 of that was on very steep screes and boulder fields (what the south bank of Wastwater is famous for - think 60º slopes made up entirely of loose jagged rocks varying in size from suitcases to fridges and small cars - see pics)... Definitely the toughest thing I've done. On the way back down the easy side I was amazed to see that virtually every piece of standing water - including roadside puddles! - was crammed full of frog spawn - aside from being early, I'm surprised there's ANY frogs in the highly acidic peaty water - let alone what is clearly a massive abundance. A grotty grey day for photos - but managed a few OK ones. Dx

A glorious spring day today - went for another Loweswater walk - half of it on the normal route along the lake shore, but then doubling back to go straight up the fell and back in a long loop totalling about 6.5 miles. Dx

Whinlatter Forest walk today - got cut short to about 3 miles - 2/3 distance - due to forestry operations. Went on to Spout Force - a spectacular 60 foot waterfall on a beck where I often used to fish for wild brownies as, 1 1/2 miles downstream, it runs within 20 feet of Corner House at High Lorton - our first home in Cumbria, 1992-95. Unfortunately I couldn't get any closer pics of the waterfall without stripping off and wading due to the vertical cliffs that surround it (one for summer!). Dx

Went for a short walk down to the postbox and then up the old church path and arrived home to find we've got a squatter on the patio. I've seen owls and sparrow hawks on there, but this is the first time for a buzzard. Was sat there for about 15 minutes after I got back. Dx

Went for a wander to Grune Point at Silloth again today (only about 5 miles from home as the crow flies) - photographing the great looking trees again - was hoping for a little more dramatic skies, but it only happened for me further on when I was right on the tip of the point looking south towards Skiddaw, though I did manage to catch a flock of Oyster Catchers in the shot. Dx

Whilst I don't disagree that they may have THOUGHT it reduced friction, by definition the greater surface area of the inside of the large hole would have resulted in greater friction, not less. I'm still intrigued as to why this wasn't thought an issue in the UK. Dx

Interesting - that they didn't then adopt the pop-out centres we did here, or that conversely juke box suppliers had to dink out the centres over here whereas juke box interest took primacy in the Colonies. Another point is that 33 1/3 EPs like Willie Mitchell etc remained undinked (even when made for juke boxes - my old Driving Beat EP even included platic JB selection tabs and little promo repros of the cover). Dx

Will take the Charles Diamond. Dx

Something I've been pondering recently - WHY do US 45s have big holes when their 78s, LPs and EPs have small holes like British releases necessitating the use of adapters when switching between vinyl formats? Dx

Closeish - I'm on the edge of Copeland DC/west Cumbria - I normally stick to the north Lakes within 20 miles of home (as the crow flies). Dx

Wastwater yesterday. Dx

Not sure how that works because I used to see a large murmuration every night at Port Carlisle on the Solway on the way home from work every night in Autumn in the same place. Dx

Surely Goosanders and Mergansers are different species? Either way they're an ecological disaster in our rivers - stripping them of fish at and appalling rate - and not really native, the first recorded breeding of a Merganser in Britain was 1906. Dx

No this was our place at the beach on the Solway. Dx PS Interestingly given the salty sea air (the wall on the left in this pic is actually the sea wall) we had lots of newts, frogs and toads. We used to get infested with twitchers as the RSPB car park was at the bottom of the garden - we even had some arctic pipit type thing in our garden at one point resulting in dozens of long lenses being poked over the wall.

Actually went up a fell today - Binsey Heights - though it was only a 450 foot tiddler. Wonderful views across Bassenthwaite and Skiddaw and north at least 50 miles into Scotland (to the Teviots well beyond Langholm which is more than 45 miles away). Dx

We used to have one living in our garden when we were at Bowness-on-Solway. Dx

A walk in the mist at Grune Point near Silloth today... The other version of the windswept tree - prefer the ground on this one...

Was so very sorry to hear about this - he was a such lovely chap. Me and Pete thought the world of him having got to know him in the early 90s at the White Heather when we co-ran it. Dx

I've decided to get a 'bridge' camera rather than lug my Canon EOS about (specially as it's in pretty permanent use on a tripod shooting closeups of my salmon flies - and occasional cheap and cheerful studio pack shot work, which I used to pay for it last year). Want to use it as a hiking camera - as per the above pics - though it's 600g (the Canon alternative is only 360g, but only 16mp) I am pretty settled on the Sony DSC-HX350 Digital Compact Bridge Camera - 50x optical zoom, 20mp - £294. Any thoughts or counter suggestions and reasons? Don't want to spend much over £300. Dx

Went for a walk round Loweswater again - had some fun with the fog - made for some shots I was really pleased with - I really MUST get round to taking my proper camera (or buy another one for the purpose). Dx