Thank you Langdale

I’m sorry to labour the word Langdale, it’s just that I saw this sign in the Timeshare office this morning and thought it was rather sweet. The receptionist told me that it was made by children from the Langdale C of E School just up the road! (They are given use of the Langdale swimming pool for their weekly lessons.)

This afternoon I left Smithers relaxing on the balcony with a book while I went out with my ‘two gun Tess’ double camera holster (one camera with a wide angle lens, one with a telephoto lens). The cameras sit one on each hip and have easy slide straps which allow either camera to be raised instantly to my eye, depending on what kind of photo I want to take. I had a wonderful walk around the estate and over on the common nearby, where I saw a meadow pipit and heard so much amazing birdsong. This evening I was pleased to see I’d clocked up over 17,000 steps and 7.5 miles.

The Traveller has company in his lodge at the moment. One of his oldest school friends, who has stayed at Langdale before, about 20 years ago, has come up for an impromptu quick visit to stay with The Traveller, this time bringing with him his wife and three young children! They popped over to see us in our lodge, and we took them out on to the balcony to show them the beautiful beck right behind our property.

And then … as we were chatting, I suddenly caught a flash of electric blue go whizzing past us, a few feet above the beck, heading up river. A kingfisher! I yelled with delight because it’s long been my dream to see a kingfisher – in all the years we’ve been coming here I’ve never seen one before, nor anywhere else for that matter.

So it’s not only the children of the local school who are grateful to Langdale – this is a big thank you to Langdale from me too for allowing me to see this most beautiful of birds in this most beautiful of places!