Are we there yet?
Well on Tuesday I bought a beautiful fountain pen in Cockermouth and I've just spent ages uploading all these pictures for you but suddenly I'm lost for words again; I'm drinking tea and looking at that big sky. Im sorry to tell you this, now that it's the Easter holidays and it's raining again, but last week was probably the most perfect week ever in the Lake District. Sara and I wore our little legs even shorter with some wonderful adventures... it's much easier to walk further when you have a companion to share sandwiches with at the top. We discussed the amazing human ability to forget how it felt to be exhausted to pieces once faced with the view from the summit ... a bit like childbirth! We also talked about the contrast between Sara's city life in Bristol and our love of this special landscape; both feeling a little discontented ... what is it you miss out on in each place? Could you swap city life for a rural one or vice versa?
I loved taking a week away from normal concerns and BCTF panic, to enjoy just being here in the Lake District, feeling lucky despite all the bad luck and upheaval. We climbed three Fells, Hindscarth, Maidenmoor and Low Fell, used my birthday voucher to have a swim and fantastic bone crunching massage at Armathwaite Hall (where we also spotted the Alpacaly alpacas doing rolypoly's under the trees) and cycled to Keswick on unsuitable bicycles to do the shopping (so much more stylish to cycle in the sunshine with a dress on and an aubergine in your basket than to charge around in lycra with serious intent).
And now it's back to work with less than three weeks before Harrogate and the trade fair. Luckily the sun left as soon as Sara went back to Bristol and even more luckily I was able to find almost all of the hooks and bits and bobs that I need for my stand when I went to Cockermouth... I'd searched in the giant B&Q in Penrith and various other shops until eventually finding the perfect things in the wonderful JB Banks .It may seem like an odd recommendation but if you're ever in the Lakes don't miss this shop; it's fabulous and has a museum at the back which I keep forgetting to look in.
So Spring has sprung, the air smells good and all is well... ah, apart from the fact that I smashed one of my vases while trying to photograph it today, I have a sore thumb from folding and stapling catalogues, all the printing I did yesterday went wrong and the cat has taken to sleeping up a 7 foot holly tree, perched on a twig like the Cheshire cat (only with a resentful look instead of a grin). I think I'm making her nervous.
The next three weeks are going to be hectic for me and very different as today is also Rupert's last day working at Carlton Outdoor Education Centre. For the past year he has driven to the North East at the crack of dawn every Monday and pretty much lived in the van all week; but he's got a new job here now, within cycling distance, so life should be easier for him and I'll have to become a little less feral and learn to live with people again! (I talk so little during the week that I almost forget how at the weekends and a whole day of talking gives me hiccups so Harrogate should be fun!). Fingers crossed for more days like last week's to share.
Here I am heading up the valley on a small bicycle with the sun in my eyes. And here is a quote that I think is relevant to the whole BCTF preparation process, because whatever happens I have learnt a lot and after all, thats what we're here for isn't it, to learn and experience and breathe in the air? Have a very happy Easter.“It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end.”― Ernest Hemingway
Reading: Various terms and conditions and a Maigret mystery. Listening to: David Grey "Sell Sell Sell" Watching:- Rare that I watch TV but "The A Word" was filmed right here and it's pretty good so far.