For the second year running we stayed in this little gem of a place called Bag End in Keswick as a little get away on the first weekend in December.  We both took Friday and Monday off to go for some walks and to just enjoy being in the Lake District during a quieter time of year.

Sadly the weather forecast was never going to be amazing and our plans to walk up Ravens Crag on Friday were thwarted by closed car parks and foot paths so we headed to Whinlatter Forest instead.  It turned into a very wet day so walking in the trees offered some respite from the weather and visiting the dog friendly cafe at the Visitors Centre was a very nice post-walk treat.

Saturday was supposed to be a slightly better day so we took the bus from Keswick down to Rosthwaite and walked back over High Seat and Bleaberry Fell.  We were walking in the clouds for a significant portion of the walk so it was another wet day walking and no views to speak of.  The paths were also very boggy so I felt virtuous for “conquering” the walk despite the conditions so thought an ice cream when we were back in Keswick was a well deserved treat.

On Sunday, we decided to take a break from wet weather walking and headed to Askam to check out the Askham Hall Christmas Market.  It was lovely and festive – the hall was decorated for Christmas and there were more than 50 vendors selling a range of crafts and food.  You could listen to the Penrith Town Brass Band or visit Santa if you wanted to as well.  After doing some shopping, we went for a bit of a Sunday lunch at the Horse and Farrier in Dacre.  I’ve seen the sign for a 18th Century Inn so many times when driving across the A66 and checking it out has been on my to do list for a while.  Stella was allowed in, the staff were very friendly and the food was tasty.  A good stop.

And then there was Monday.  Monday was a day in between what seemed like days and days of rain and wind that was sunny and clear – so we took the plunge and went up Skiddaw.  Skiddaw is the fourth highest mountain in England at 921 metres and although we have been up it before, we took a different route starting from Bassenthwaite village and hoped that the cloud on the top of the mountain would clear by the time we got there.  The views were lovely – until we got into the cloud that didn’t move from the top… It did move eventually but by that time we were half way down!  The paths were good and I was happy that it stayed dry and I could get my camera out of my bag.  And that virtuous feeling returned so we treated ourselves to dinner out before organising ourselves for a (slightly shorter) week at work.

Here are some pictures from the weekend.  Looking forward to our next adventure in a couple of weeks time – more on that soon!