Winter Adventures

17 January 2020


We have started this Winter with lots of days out enjoying the beautiful countryside we get to call home.  My husband was off work for 12 days over the Christmas and New Year period which gave us lots of time to have some great days out.



We got the canoes out for a trip around a local lake.  I love canoeing, especially as a family, but we don't manage it that often as the only day we can all go is on a Sunday.  I very often need the time on this day to get myself ready for the week ahead or do those jobs that there is not the time for during the week.  It was a grey day in the main with welcome odd sightings of the sun and enough wind to get the little sail out for the journey back to the car.  We were the only boats out and about, apart from the steamers taking folks out for trips around the lake.


Our friends who live in Scotland were down for a few days just before Christmas, we managed to spend the day with them and another family on a walk alongside a different lake.  We were so lucky that that it was another dry day with patches of sunshine.




Whenever we are at home for Christmas we go for a walk on Christmas Day.  We have kedgeree for breakfast which is really filling, we take snacks with us, there is no need for a picnic.  This walk is very near to where we live, the hills in these pictures are the view from my house.  The small amount of water in the middle photo is a reservoir that was built to supply water to Manchester about 100 miles away, it flooded the valley covering a small village, when we have a really dry summer and the water level drops you can see remnants of walls and buildings.  The water travels underground in a pipeline which is feat of engineering you can read more about it here.


My mountain bike was dusted off and taken out the garage for a rare outing.  I am not a massive fan of mountain biking I prefer to ride on roads.  My husband and Cameron go mountain biking regularly and love it when Alice and I join them.  We weren't riding together though as Alice and I opted for the wide open forest tracks whilst Husband and Cameron were on a purpose built mountain biking route that had no appeal for us!



Alice enjoyed our dusk walk on the Winter Solstice so much that she asked if we could do it again only this time staying out until it was properly dark.  We headed out at about 2 o'clock when most folks were heading back to their cars.  It was a wild and windy day with good views from vantage points, we were rewarded with a beautiful sunset and the thinest sliver of a newish moon.  It is something we are going to do again whilst the evenings are still dark fairly early.



We had plans to go for a big walk with friends on New Years Eve.  They challenged us to take them somewhere new, to them, so we opted for a ridge that my husband drives past on this way to work every day.  It was a glorious day, big wide blue skies with the odd fluffy cloud, once we got up on the ridge we could see for miles and had a 360° view.  We saw one other walker in the six hours we were out walking.  We covered 13km/8 miles mostly off paths and through some very wet boggy places in parts.  As we walked down off the ridge the sun dropped down behind the hills and it got very cold indeed.  We followed our walk with an evening meal at our house, seeing in the New Year with a glass of champagne and some inspired dancing and singing to Auld Lang Syne!

We haven't been on quite so many adventures since then but I have realised that at this time of year if you don't plan to go out you will never do it, you have probably worked that out already.  If we were to wait for the weather to be fair then we would definitely never leave the house.  We are planning on having a day out a week doing something, whatever the weather, throughout the Winter.  We have the clothing and equipment to cope with cold, wet days  and I have heard it quoted often there is no such thing as bad weather only the unsuitable or wrong clothing we don't have any excuses.  So Winter here we come!

Have you had any fun adventures yet this Winter?

33 comments:

  1. How wonderful to have such stunning scenery on your doorstep. The Lake District is one of my favourite places to be.

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    1. It is wonderful, I am so blessed to have such a wonderful view from my house and when I drive around.

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  2. We've been lucky to have had a mild winter so far which has meant we've been able to get out and about. Such stunning scenery in your photos. Knowing you're going to be encountering such beautiful views on your days out must give you all the encouragement you need to get out there.

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    1. The views are what makes a long walk worth while provided that clouds are not too low! I love the scenery where I live and never tire of the view from my house.

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  3. I am so envious of your beautiful and long walks - until my knee gets better I feel so limited as to what I can do other than admire your photos and pretend I was there with you!! It has been good for us to get to our cottage and be out in the blustery weather even for a little while in the garden it has that great feeling of blowing away the cobwebs which we gather in the winter and leaves you feeling refreshed.

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    1. I love short walks too, they are different but just as good. I tend to notice the small things when I am on a shorter walk, taking my time to notice, there is not always time to do that on a longer walk.

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  4. You have captured some beautiful countryside in your photos. I hope you continue to enjoy your winter excursions.
    Best wishes
    Ellie

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    1. Thank you, we have been out every week so far whatever the weather!

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  5. Wonderful that you challenge yourselves to get out. Regardless of the weather. And what wonderful sights you have seen, doing this. And memories made...

    ♫♪•*¨*•.¸🔥💛🔥¸.•*¨*•♪♫

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    1. I hope we continue to for the rest of the winter. It is a great way to make memories.

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  6. Ohhhh, the flooding of that valley, covering a small town..... In the past... That must be a story, in itself.

    How sad for those, who had lived their whole lives in that small town. Wonder if they were fully compensated for the loss of their homes and livelihood? Etc. Etc. Etc.

    -sigh-

    And what a place, for the setting, of a spooky novel!!!!!!!!!! Ruins sticking up, in dry weather.......

    ♫♪•*¨*•.¸🔥💛🔥¸.•*¨*•♪♫

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    1. There is a lovely book by Sarah Hall, it is a work of fiction laced with some of the facts of what happen when they built the dam. It is called Haweswater. It was two small villages with, a pub and a church, the gravestones were moved to a special cemetery in my village and only those that had lived in the valley could be buried there, the last person died only a few years ago she was a young child when she and her family had to move.

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  7. love your canoe photo (you should frame it). We take some walks when the weather isn't too crazy but overall we have not had any outside adventures yet. This weekend is supposed to be snowy so maybe we will be out shoveling!

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  8. Looks like you've enjoyed some wild winter adventures. We are so lucky to be in close proximity to such beautiful countryside. Definitely looking forward to using the caravan again from March. Meanwhile trying to get a few nice Lancashire walks under my belt. x

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    1. We are lucky indeed, I do feel blessed. I have visited London this month too and it feels like a alien world to me now.

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  9. What a stunning place to call home! I love your photos of the landscape along the walks you take. I love walking and think of it almost as my own meditation. One step followed by others and thoughts free to come and go. MegXx

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    1. It is stunning, I love living here because of the beautiful scenery. I will never tire of looking at it. Walking is a good meditation, I love to take walks on my own. I try to do a short walk every morning on weekdays and often go on my own.

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  10. Happy day, I can sign in to comment again :-)

    Well done for making the most of what has been some absolutely grey, miserable and driech weather.

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    1. Yay, glad you got that sorted! It has been miserable at times hasn't it, it feels different when you are out in it though, I think you get so involved in what you are doing that you don't really notice it is so grey.

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  11. Wow, those are beautiful photos and its great to hear about all your outings. You have inspired me to get out more, we have a dog but tend to go to the same places. Do you wear dry suits for winter canoeing? I have to admit when we hang ours up around Oct we anticipate that they will stay there until at least spring. I think we feel nervous about the extra demands of winter canoeing and don't really want the expense of the extra kit. I'm sure it's probably more doable than we maybe think.

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    1. Thank you! We don't wear dry suits in Winter or summer but then we don't really go to places where we would expect to fall in. We mostly canoe on lakes in Winter which tend to be flatter - unless it is windy- that rivers. We wrap up warm in plenty of layers and hats. I think the only things that we have bought that we only use in winter are neoprene gloves for us all which are so much warmer when wet, Lomo is a good company for this - if you haven't come across them before. We also have insulated wellies which we tend to wear most of the time for canoeing.

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  12. I feel like I spend much of my week making plans for the weekend, depending on the weather forecast. It can prove difficult getting out at this time of year but so rewarding when we do. You've taken in some lovely walks and your photographs are making me yearn to get out on the fells again. X

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    1. It can be difficult you are right. I am going to attempt to go out regardless of the weather and just make sure that I am dressed for the weather.

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  13. What a beautiful post. Your walks and adventures sound perfect. An area of the country that I need to discover more of. B x

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    1. Thank you. There are so many beautiful parts to our country.

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  14. Goodness, what stunning photos. You have me yearning to return to the Lakes, one of my favourite places. Some wonderful days out.xxx

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    1. Thank you, they were wonderful days out. The Lakes is a beautiful place I am so lucky to call it home.

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  15. This year I am not sure about walking--my knee is not good and the doc started talking about knee replacement. Ack! So I'm trying to avoid that by being careful. Your photos are gorgeous, and make me long to get out and about, but I'll have to do my sightseeing from the car, I'm afraid.

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    1. Sightseeing from the car is good too! I am sorry to hear that you are having knee problems that must be so painful, I do hope you can get that sorted soon.

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  16. Thanks for that, i will look them up. i think we have one pair of neoprene gloves, which is at least a start. We should give winter canoeing a go rather than just wondering about it. One of the places we launch from has a reopened pub beside it so we can always warm up straight afterwards!

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    1. A pub or somewhere warm at the end of a canoe trip is always a winner! Enjoy your winter canoeing x

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  17. Stunning photos, wow, you do live in a beautiful part of the country. We have had some lovely wintery walks around the Norfolk & Suffolk countryside. There's something I find even more satisfying about walking in not 'great' weather, as of course everyone loves being out and about in the summer and spring. So interesting (and sad) about the flooded village you can see traces of over dry summers.

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