Report from the last few days... been to the Lake District again with stops in Yorkshire and Derbyshire on route.

What had be at first thought of as a day trip, started the morning of the day before, being great weather (the main reason for leaving sooner) and some hours on the way up exploring West Yorkshire and the North Yorkshire Dales:- Whafedale, Wensleydale and Swaledale (the top end) before heading via West Stonesdale (see Flickriver) and Tan Hill to meet the A66 and then on into Cumbria.

Some of the lying snow... still around on the higher areas from the snow a few weeks ago, not everyones' idea of 'beauty' but I really enjoy the landscape when there's snow around. The bottom image shows some of the snow drift patterns created by the wind and the snow drift was still over 30cm/1ft deep on the road that I was standing on and the wall is about 240cm/6ft high.

The one day trip, having already be extended, continued as I ended up staying two nights in Cumbria. The two images shown above are from the Lake District, top one is in Patterdale, one of the many becks (local name for stream) that flow into Ullswater. The bottom picture is of the River Duddon as it  flows through Dunnerdale starting at Wrynoss Pass and ending in the sea just north of Barrow-in-Furness. A less visited valley, compaired to others but no less attractive...

This was one of the stops on the return trip, on the Derbyshire/Yorkshire border and in this case a location I have visited and painted many times in both watercolour and oil. Some sections of the stream were still frozen and created some interesting moments while sliding across, much safer that trying to jump and not knowing what the landing surface would be like... the water in these streams has a brown tint which comes from the peat that covers the surrounding Moors - a contrast to the clear becks of the Lake District.

Now back in the studio for one day then out again...