Grace conquers the Old Man

So two years earlier, when we stayed at Bank Ground (Holly Howe of Swallows and Amazon's fame), I had set off with Isabelle and Grace to walk up the Old Man of Coniston.  Grace was feeling under the weather, but was determined to try - however after an hour or so of walking it was clear that she wasn't able to complete the walk.  We had to return, take Grace back, and then I set off with just Isabelle and did manage to climb to the top.  So this time, Grace was determined...

Difficulty: 6
Walkers: Tim, Isabelle (9), Grace (7)
9:24, 0.0km 0h00 0m, Start (57)
12:00, 4.5km 2h36 738m, Coniston Old Man (803)
12:20, 5.4km 2h55 761m, Brim Fell (796)
13:28, 7.6km 4h03 887m, Swirl How (802)
14:53, 9.5km 5h28 1025m, Wetherlam (763)
16:54, 14.9km 7h29 1056m, End (56)

We parked at the large car park at the bottom of Coniston, then walked up through the town before taking the traditional route up the Old Man.  

Two brave explorers, keen to get started.

Taking a small break and (by the look of things) some extra calories.  Grace knew well that when Isabelle did the walk two years before I'd needed some strong encouragement to get all the way to the top.  She was very determined to complain less than Isabelle had done, and was frequently asking me to compare the two ascents...

Investigating some of the workings on the way to the top.

And made it to the tarn, still fairly sheltered and hot on the climb, 

And finally at the top!  At this point with Isabelle we'd already done a couple of extra hours, so we had taken the path down to Goat's Water.  However this time things were looking a lot better, so we set off from here to the north, along the ridge towards Brim Fell.  

Now at Brim Fell, we found our first snow!  Grace was delighted, and spent most of the rest of the walk searching out patches of snow to make snowballs.  The girls even invented a song, I seem to remember the words were mainly around snow...

I think Isabelle had realised my plan at this point, to do a circuit and pick up Swirl How and Wetherlam, since Caroline and I on our honeymoon had done a similar walk.  However she was happy to not let Grace to just yet what we'd got planned.

Grace, on the other hand, was showing off her split personality, occasionally manic (more often when walking on snow) and occasionally morose.

Still, there were more patches of snow to conquer.  On the path from Swirl How to Wetherlam there is a fairly obvious place where you can turn right and head back down the hills, or continue on and up to Wetherlam.  To their credit the girls, having come this far, consented to carry on and climb back up for a last peak.

Now at the top of Wetherlam, the last peak on a walk well done.

We decided to head down the valley path.  The valley itself was easy to fine, the path less so.  The bogs more so.  I have a feeling that it was on this stretch that Grace lost a shoe in a bog and ended up getting mud everywhere on her foot & sock.

Finally back down at Consiton, to admire the new lambs and find the car.

Circumnavigation of Elter Water

Time for another low level walk, but quite long and beautiful.  I really like the circular nature of this one, there is a sense where you have to commit to the distance, rather than knowing you can just turn back at any time and retrace your steps.

Difficulty: 3

Walkers: Tim, Caroline, Isabelle (9), Grace (7), Evie (4)

10:22, 0.0km 0h00 0m, Start (62)

17:17, 10.9km 6h55 280m, End (63)

We parked in the car park in Elterwater, right next to the River Braythay, and started walking along the path next to the river.  This gets to Skelwith Bridge, at which point we track west until Slater Bridge, before turning north and back towards Elterwater.

A great chance for Poppy to stretch her legs for a bit, and some great puddles to aim for.

It was spring, and the sheep & lambs were out in force, and frolicking merrily.  At one point, two of them got quite friendly, starting discussions of animal husbandry. 

View looking back towards the Langdales.

Further along the River Brathay there was a great chance for posed photos.

As in previous walks sticks, and the uses of, feature heavily.

This was on the southern leg of the journey, and Evie was struggling for motivation.  Despite telling her that she would walk quicker if she wasn't checking every gap in the stone wall to see if her stick would fit in, she persisted.

Slater Bridge, now we turn north.

At this point the kids were fairly happy to learn that we would be skirting around the bottom of this, rather than climbing to the top.

Still playing dogs, swapping owners and games.

Short piece of road walking, around Little Langdale.

Quite impressive quarry workings.

Latterbarrow from Hawkshead

The previous day involved a walk around Tarn Howes, I have a feeling it was then that the girls were playing on a tree stump and Grace managed to jump onto Evie - it turned out nothing was actually damaged, but for a while the bickering had a focus...

We'd planned a walk from Hawkshead, nothing too high or long,

Difficulty: 2
Walkers: Tim, Caroline, Isabelle (9), Grace (7), Evie (4)
10:40, 0.0km 0h00 0m, Start (71)
14:41, 7.0km 4h01 235m, End (70)

Heading up the path, progress was sometimes slow.  Evie at the vanguard was suspected of slowing the pace.

Still, this meant that Poppy got to do some walking, helped by Grace and Isabelle.

Sticks featured large on this walk, the carrying of, the breaking of, the fighting over, and (most of all) pretending to be dogs and needing to fetch them.

 The views from the top.  It's only an outlying Wainwright, rather than a full one, but still worth the effort.

 

Loughrigg from Ambleside

First walk of the holiday, after arriving the day before and doing the Easter Egg trail at Fell Foot, at the bottom of Lake Windermere.  We were staying in Ambleside, at a house just up Kirkstone Road, so we were able to do this walk from the house.  This turned out to be Evie's first Wainwright, Poppy was in the carrier for most of the walk.

Difficulty: 3

Walkers: Tim, Caroline, Isabelle (9), Grace (7), Evie (4)

10:09, 0.0km 0h00 0m, Start (56)

14:18, 6.5km 4h08 372m, Loughrigg Fell (335)

16:43, 11.0km 6h33 424m, End (80)

The route took us to Rydal, then skirting the south of Rydal Water, steadily climbing up before turned and walking directly to Loughrigg Fell.  We were aiming first at the caves on the way to this final climb.

However, there was an obstacle on the first section to Rydal!

This was great fun, we had to dismount Poppy and help her through.

Slightly more normal walking, with the climb up to Fairfield Horseshoe ahead - not the target for today however.

At the caves on the way, and a good chance for some easy rock climbing up the sides. 

A stop for lunch over looking Rydal Water, before the climb up to Loughrigg Fell.  A great time to restock some energy.

The view from lunch looking north.

Climbing up, Evie managing with a little encouragement.

The view from the top!  Great vantage point, even though it's not that high.

The gentle walk back down the other side and in towards Ambleside.

Snake Birthday Cake

I cooked this cake for Grace's 7th birthday.

This quite a big bowl.  That's quite a lot of cake mixture.  Oh the days before we got a kitchen aid...

Two cakes later.

Making the snake out of the cakes.The round cake makes most of the curves, then you just hack away at the square cake until it joins up. 

Plus you get a whole lot of spare bits left over.

Decorating the cake board, I bought a couple of different leaf cutters and a few colours of icing - all artistic input goes to Caroline.

Final cake with camouflage icing.   Trying to put smooth fondant icing on top of this was never going to happen.

Ben 10 Birthday Cake

I cooked this for Jamie, my nephew, when he was in the UK summer 2011.  He was into Ben 10 so the request came through!  I didn't make any notes, so hopefully the pictures are enough.

The next two show cutting the cake to size, thinking about where the arm comes across and cutting away to leave that standing out.

Slice in half, putting buttercream in the middle, then covering it all up.

The pink and white didn't overlap, which was a bit of a pain where there wasn't the black sleeve end to hide the join.  Still, joining would have meant more fondant icing which doesn't make the cake taste great.  All the other shapes, brown/green/black were cut and glued on top.  I'm pretty sure that the only reason the watch circle looks darker was being wet, rather than the other black which had dried out.