Summer, at last!

Finally the showers have dried up and the sun has come out. Temperatures have soared into the low to mid 20's (that's 75 to 80 for you Yanks!), and summer weather has arrived. Our British friends tell us to enjoy it as it rarely lasts for more than a few days at a time. On Saturday Scott was chomping at the bit to be off on a fell walk, so we headed to Buttermere. We'd been there before, but, as you might recall, we walked around the wrong lake.

The walk around Buttermere is advertised as an easy, 2 hour, five mile walk. Just the thing for a beautiful English morning. We left early as we were concerned about crowds and parking. There are a few "pay and display" lots in Buttermere, but they tend to fill quickly, especially on days like this! "Pay and Display" means you park your car, go find the machine, drop in your pounds for the corresponding amount of time you want, and a ticket comes out which you display on your dash. Scott parked and headed off to find the "pay" machine and I began taking a few photos. From behind me I heard a very loud "MOO!" and turned to see several cows coming up the roadway towards me. The farmer was moving them from one pasture to another, apparently. His sheepdog was herding the cows while he followed behind in his truck. Quite the sight on the roadway through the parking lot!

Those cows appeared a little agitated and in no mood for a picture taking, steak eating, human, so I hurriedly got off the road before taking their picture! Scott returned and we set off for our walk. The remaining pictures were taken along our walk. It took us a little over two hours as we often paused to take a picture or two, but it was a beautiful day.

Do you remember the photos of those adorable little lambs from a few weeks ago? We saw lots of lambs, older now but still young enough to keep close to their mums. At one point we stopped to watch a little lamb who was "baaaa-ing" repeatedly. In between cries he would take a few steps, look around, and then let out another "baa". He had lost his mum! Within a few minutes, though, his mum showed up and he was so excited to see her. Did you know that lambs wag their tails just like dogs? His was wagging as fast as it could go!

Well, as advertised, our weather is due to change this week. In fact, today (Monday) was bright and sunny and warm, but colder air is set to move in with showers on Wednesday and Thursday and high's only in the 50's over the weekend. It's the Queen's Diamond Jubilee weekend and in our town there is a big maritime festival to coincide with the Queen's celebration. Scott has 4 days off and we're looking forward to relaxing and enjoying the festival.