England - Ambleside Walk, Houses in Town

...and this will round out the posts from the Ambleside walk.  Truly this hike was a highlight of the trip, a day in which I ended up using about 20% of the Bigger Cahoona's precious battery life.  But better than all that was the time I was able to spend with Andrew on what was one of the focal points of our journey.  Can't say enough about how much of a blessing it was to have him with me on this adventure.  Did something similar with our daughter Allison in Kentucky when she ran a marathon, and cannot understate the value in spending this kind of dedicated time with your children.  If you can, do it.

So to cap things off for this day's activities, see 3-shot panorama below of Ambleside nestled in its surroundings of hills, dales, valleys and fells:

Bookmarks - Ambleside Sheep (Animal Series - Mammals)

 

Search "Ambleside" and you'll see the posting of this pic in its greater extent, as well as the one below:

Bookmark - Ambleside Eye (Animal Series - Mammals)

One from the prolific shoot of our Ambleside walk in England's Lake District.  Still amazed at what I was able to capture considering that I hadn't brought along a charger or a spare battery.  Series posted here.

Bookmark Project - Ambleside Mushrooms (plants, non-flower)

One of my all-time favorites, this pic in its larger format was posted here in the Lake District series.  Sometimes it all comes together...on this day the sun came peeking through the foliage to highlight this cluster of mushrooms just as Andrew and I were hiking by on an Ambleside walk.

And yes, I know that mushrooms are technically not plants, but here they are anyway...

England - Ambleside Walk, Sheep on a Hill

The first full day in the Lake District we took an all-day tour, just to see what's around.  The tour guide was great, and wending our way through those narrow country lanes in a bus was a very interesting experience.  One thing the guide pointed out was the fact that nearly all of the sheep that you'll see are spray-painted one color or another, and in some cases two colors.  She said this was because they've been having a problem with sheep rustling, so this makes them easier to track if they come up missing...serving the same purpose as brands on a cow (though obviously not as permanent).  On our Ambleside walk we got to see quite a few up close, such as this one.

England - Ambleside Walk, Lake with Windermere

Ambleside was just about a 15-minute drive from Windermere.  This part of the trail afforded a view of Windermere/Bowness, and the lake to the right.

Bookmark - Ambleside Rock Wall with Shed

While across the pond will feature this, one of my favorites overall from our Ambleside hike, the very picture of rustic tidiness.  It's easy to imagine that these stone walls are ancient, but the average lifespan - according to our guide the first day we were in the Lake District - is only 40 years and they require constant maintenance to stay in place.

Horizontal of same below...

England - Ambleside Walk, Pathway Waterfall

As stated in the introduction to this series, this part of England is all about walking, and we came here so that we could take some of the walks together and take lots of pictures.  The family bought me a good pair of walking sticks before the trip, and after arriving we went to one of the many walking stores (yes, retail outlets geared specifically to the walking industry) to buy a good pair of walking shoes.

And Andrew was right...the vistas in this peaceful, rural part of the country are tremendous, and every time you turn your head there's something else to take a picture of.  And - as happened in Alaska - we were blessed with awesome weather most days, even when it was forecast to be miserable.

This waterfall was to our left at the beginning of the trail.  I do lots of bracketing for these kinds of shots, and this one was handheld at a tenth of a second, with the darkest exposure being chosen.  Had to be careful, though; with only 15% of battery life rationed for the day I couldn't afford to get too carried away.

Before embarking on this walk the locals told us that this was one of the better trails because of the variety, and they were sure right, as we experienced waterfalls, roadways through the woods and out in the open, pathways through the woods and out in the open, a steep climb up a large fell, over the felltop, and a gentler path back down to Ambleside through a picturesque little village (Troutbeck).  Just right for our purposes with the time that we had.

England - Ambleside Walk, Pagoda (or something) Rooftop

From this point forward we were pretty much in town.  This was captured on Skelghyll Lane just a piece up from Hayes Garden World in Ambleside, seen below:

England - Ambleside Walk, Holly Leaves

England - Ambleside Walk, Cows in Pasture

A view like this makes it easy to understand why James Herriot fell in love with the place soon after beginning his work back in the 1940's.  Even in all kinds of weather it must have been fantastic just to drive the dales day by day and practice in settings like this.

England - Ambleside Walk, Stone Wall Door

Didn't see too many of these...a door built right into the stone wall.  Makes sense, though.

England - Ambleside Walk, Stone Wall Next to Pathway

England - Ambleside Walk, Stone Walls

One of the things I was hoping to capture was the network of stone walls that crisscross the region.  Because they are made of rock, which conveys permanence, it's easy to assume that they've been here for a very long time.  That's why we were surprised to learn that the lifespan of these walls is no more than about 40 years if they're not diligently maintained...due mostly because there is no mortar holding the rocks together.  Also it turns out that they don't contain sheep very well; the broken-down parts are where they hop or climb over, knocking some of the rocks out of place as they cross.

Closer shot of the house below, where you can see the gaps a little better (click to enlarge), as well as one wall that has almost completed tumbled down over time:

England - Ambleside Walk, Tree #3

Note the wall to the left leading up to the marker resembling a tombstone in the background.  Similar gate and marker below, captured a little further down the trail, closer to the little town of Troutbeck:

England - Ambleside Walk, Tree #1

It's amazing, this Google Map thing.  While checking things out online after the trip, discovered that the trail we walked is marked along its entire length and can be verified by some of the photos taken by the Google Camera Guy, including one very close to the fell summit.  Though it has been only some weeks since the trip, already I get a little nostalgic looking at the places that Andrew and I visited and explored...

Bookmark - Ambleside Vacation Cottages (Landscapes)

We had already crested the felltop and were circling our way back into town when this popped into view.  In a growing fad over there, these vacation cottages are bunched into their own little neighborhood.  Some locals have complained that they are an unsightly blot on the landscape, but I think they look pretty good.

Bookmark - Lake District Bovines

...and speaking of bovines, this is one of the most popular of all my bookmarks because of the cattle that are all uniformly brown against the vivid greens.  Of course none of this was entering my mind as I snapped the photo on our Ambleside hike, but was serendipitously pleased during post-capture and consider it a keeper.

Will cap off this three-shot bovine bookmark series with one at the "back end" tomorrow...

Bookmark - Ambleside Felltops

Again, being entirely random here...some felltops in England.

James Herriott wrote of the incredible tenacity of farmers/ranchers that manage to eek out a living among these heights, though in Yorkshire (this was captured in the North Lake District).  This pic looks OK in a 5-inch bookmark, but because it was captured with the Bigger Cahoona a print more than five feet across could be made.

England - Ambleside Walk, Church with Graveyard