Lunch with an Old Friend

I got this tweet a couple of weeks ago and it really made me smile.

Since the beginning of  May my feet have barely touched the ground - first there was work which took me all over Lancashire and London, then we took off for 5 weeks in Scotland and before we'd even got all the washing dry I was off again, this time for a week working near Portsmouth.  I knew I still lived in Cumbria, I just hadn't seen a lot of the place.

Well, things have begun to calm down a little so today we took a sneak day off and headed for the fells.  I know it's weird but there's something about going for a hike during the week which makes me feel like I'm playing hooky from school.  Not that I ever did play hooky, like to go off with Jackie Jasiewicz to see Duran Duran at the NEC when they were filming a video because I won free tickets from the newspaper which I never told my mum about, no, nothing like that at all...I'm just saying that it feels how I imagine playing hooky might feel...

Anyway, having been away for a while I thought it was time to go and see an Old Friend for lunch, so we headed up to Walna Scar car park for one of our favourite hikes - Buck Pike, Dow Crag, Swirl Howe and down via Levers Water.

The view from the car park had me chomping at the bit and the bright sunshine had me realising that I'd probably not bought enough fluids, but I figured we just about be OK.  (we were)  As we sat on the top of Dow Crag admiring the views of the Old Man we noticed how busy it was, even mid week, so many people playing hooky...

As we munched away Steve got the distinct feeling we were being watched - he was right!

I can never decide if it's better being on top of Dow Crag looking down, or below it looking up at the fantastic ridge line.

And back down via Levers water with the early autumn sunshine beginning to fade just a little bit.  What can I say?  It's great to be home.