Round Derwentwater

Having looked down on the splendid autumnal colours of Derwentwater's woodlands earlier in the week, we decided to walk round the lake itself today. The colours were indeed splendid! 

Looking down the lake....

...and across to the Catbells, Maiden Moor and High Spy ridge we were on last week.

Reflections...

The centenary stone.

More reflections.

Through the woods.

From near Chinese Bridge, looking towards Castle Crag.

Looking through the temperate rainforest to the screes below Walla Crag.

Skiddaw.

And the colours of Bog Myrtle...

Walla Crag.

Castle Crag.

Playing with Grasmoor

Grasmoor is a large lump of a mountain, with a reddish hue that glows bronze in the evening light. It is really striking and we had great views of it last week from our Loweswater round walk ....

I really want to develop some ways of effectively combining print and stitch, so these are some small scale experiments. 

This is the image I was working from: 

First a collagraph plate and print were made: 

The print was hand coloured with water colour: 

Then I printed the collagraph and added colour by the chine colle technique. The brown was printed onto layout paper and was from acrylic ink on a gel plate. 

Lettering was added using chine colle, but it moved as I didn't have the correct glue ...which has now been ordered! 

I then moved on to fabric. The collagraph was printed onto wet strength tissue paper and incorporating colour by chin colle, it was stuck onto fabric - using CMC paste. 

This was then embroidered: 

And finally, I printed the collagraph plate onto a synthetic sheer fabric, hand stitched and then hand coloured with acrylic ink: 

Autumn on Wedholme

Rocky's Fourteenth Birthday walk - A still autumn day on Wedholme: gorgeous colours, a Whooper Swan, lots of Teal and several Snipe, an Adder (sadly, not looking very well) and the Insect-egg Slime Mold....a new one to me.

Insect-egg Slime Mold.

Poorly Adder...hopefully tomorrow's forecast sunshine will help.

Too bright, too early...

The weather was too bright, too early to last all day, but as we were beginning with Catbells, we were up early and had the best of the day. Once again glorious autumn! We parked successfully at 8:30ish at the base of Catbells and headed up... Rocky gave the rock band scramble on the lower flanks of Catbells his best shot....well he basically threw himself at it and required catching! Anyway, on the summit the views were stunning from this charismatic little peak. We shared the top with just 4 others. Then it was down and up onto Maiden Moor and the long ridge that leads to High Spy. From here we carried on down to the col and Dale Head Tarn, before following the valley down to Little Town and returned via footpaths round the back of Catbells to our start. The valley down from Dale Head Tarn, with the what becomes Newlands Beck in it, was stunning! Lovely berried Holly and Rowan and classic waterfalls. A walk we shall repeat. 

Skiddaw in her autumn cloak.

Skiddaw and Blencathra over Keswick.

From the northerly flank of Catbells.

Catbells.

Descending before climbing onto Maiden Moor - a good view of Sergeant Man, where we were two days ago. It looks a lot more impressive from this side! 

Looking down onto Catbells.

Maiden Moor.

High Spy.

Looking across to Dale Head.

Lovely textures...

And to our delight a really large area of Stag's-horn Club Moss.

Really abundant!

Coming down the valley...

Lunch stop...

Lovely worn holes and pebbles.

Swirling.

Cascading....

Looking back ....

Little Town church with Keskadale Oaks in the background.

Rocky's tops

This was the second time we have done the route and both times we have enjoyed clear summits and glorious weather. Looking back at the last time click here , that we did it I posted four pictures of Rocky, one on each summit. So here, in the week of his fourteenth birthday are yesterdays four pictures of him on the same summits, together with the original ones. Happy Birthday week Rocky-dog! 

Blea Rigg.

Sergeant Man.

High Raise.

Tarn Crag.

And six year's ago ....it was a very hot August day hence the damp neckerchief!