Dot watching...

Lakes in a Day is a challenging Ultra Marathon that begins in Caldbeck and ends in Cartmel. It is to be completed within 24 hours. 

(Photo Durty Events) 

So, yesterday was spent trying to spot Molly on the fells, including a quick yomp up Helvellyn, to meet her at the top, and 'dot watching' until just gone 1:00 am in the morning, when she finished. An outstanding effort, in what was her first Ultra Marathon. 52.38 miles with 12,199 feet of ascent in 17 hours and 18 minutes! 

A few of photos ...

Registering for the 8:00am start.

Descending Halls Fell Ridge.

Molly - left hand side running down the rocks..

And into Threlkeld...

Reaching the summit of Helvellyn...

..and off again towards Fairfield via Grisedale Hause.

Live tracking Number 114.

Onto Fairfield before descending into Ambleside....

The family were all tracking that red 114 dot...with dedicated friends even tracking her whilst camping! 

Tracking from a tent ...with the essentials! 

And finally across the finish line - it was great to have the live coverage of competitors arriving! 

Textile Grykes

A rather random post, just catching up with photos of artwork ...this  piece was inspired by grykes - specifically the ones at Moelfre on Anglesey. Gelli prints made onto wet strength tissue paper were cut and layered before machine stitching. I really enjoyed this process and it is one I need to develop further. As it was just a sample piece I didn't really think about framing. When I'd finished it I found I really liked the irregular outline and the stitching that goes off the edge - something to consider next time...

Detail ...

Wedholme Flow catch up

Our next visit after returning home, was down the bog. Suddenly autumn has caught us up! The colours have strengthened since we were last there and the ponds were covered in Greylag Geese and Teal. We also saw a few Black Darters - probably the last time for the year. 

Plenty of fungi too...although not a wide range of species.

Greylags and Teal.

Happy lad....on holiday with us.

Great Calva

A glorious day and at long last, another Wainwright....good to be out in the sunshine! We found a better path to go up...too late as we spotted it from the summit - but details are in the photo captions.

The path up to Dash Falls.

Plenty of water in the beck...

Looking back to Binsey.

The back of Blencathra.

And looking up to Great Calva. The path that goes up beside Dead Beck was quite eroded, peaty and damp.

Cracking views ...

...into Central Lakes.

The top...

We came down a different way - from the top you could see a path that would clearly intersect the track to Skiddaw House, a bit further on than the one we went up. This was much nicer and less eroded. The photo shows where it goes up Great Calva...basically if you go past the usual path at Dead Beck and carry on a couple of hundred yards there is a small pile of stones marking the path ....

Heading down to Skiddaw House from where the path heads off on the left.

Looking back at the summit.

Dash Beck ... almost in the sunshine.

Fungi I know - and many I don't!

As soon as we got home, we headed to the woods to see how the fungi had come on in our absence. It had been very wet while we were away. Plenty of different fungi, but only a few edibles. 

Shaggy Inkcaps.

Textures!

Whatever it is it looks like a meringue that has been blow torched!

Earth Balls.

Black Bulgar.

Amethyst Deceivers.

Now, this could be a very old Hen of the Woods or apparently Meripilus Giganteus..it depends on the stem - or lack of - which I didn't look at...but I'm going Hen of the Woods.

It's an acorn year!

Oak galls.

Temperate rainforest sketching

I loved the reserve at Glenborrodale, so not having enough confidence to try a big painting, to try and capture  the feel of the place, I taped and gridded a sheet of paper to do one big splishy-sploshy painting, so that I could remove the grid to make small abstracts. Maybe one of them would lead me somewhere!..as I write this I am thinking a tapestry weaving...

Unfortunately, as I was doing this in the evening and under a flourescent light, it didn't turn out as green as it might. But a useful exercise that I then repeated when I got home. Next step is to do a large scale painting ...what could possibly go wrong! 

The photo I very loosely used for inspiration.

The full piece .. and a few of the individual 'sqares'.

..and the greener version...

And the photo I am planning to use for my painting....same style - splishy-sploshy but a bit more defined in subject.