By a Mossy Gnome

Wild roses and rain

Wetherlam, originally uploaded by byamossygnome.com.

Wild roses and rain - we have had plenty of sunshine recently, but somehow this looks more typical of an English summer day. During the long dry spell, the lakes were shrinking and their grey stone edges growing. After last week’s downpours, though, the water levels are back to normal and waterfalls, like Tom Ghyll below Tarn Hows, are full and vigorous again. Here, Wetherlam has its head hidden in cloud, and the remains of the latest shower still gleam on the surface of the road. The only clue to the season is given by the roses.

The office of your dreams.

Beatrix Potter Gallery, Hawkshead, originally uploaded by byamossygnome.com.

As you set off for work at the office each morning, just imagine if it was here. This is where Beatrix Potter's husband worked. She married William Heelis, a solicitor, whose office in Hawkshead now houses a collection of his wife's delightful paintings. Beatrix was a working wife - although most famous as a children's writer and artist, she was also a farmer. She became an expert in breeding Herdwick sheep and won many prizes with them.

Just a reminder that it’s still summer

Helm Crag, Grasmere, originally uploaded by byamossygnome.com.

Midsummer was over a couple of days ago and it sometimes seems more like autumn now. Strong, cold winds blew at the weekend and now the sky is heavy and producing some drizzle. Here, as a reminder that it is indeed summer, is another picture from Grasmere last Friday. Helm Crag (also known as the Lion and the Lamb after its summit rocks) and a meadow full of flowers - there is even some blue sky.

The next to longest day

Grasmere, originally uploaded by byamossygnome.com.

The longest day - who would think it? It also seems the wettest, greyest, gloomiest. Add to the gloom the thought that days will begin to shrink now, as they begin their steady decline towards winter.

Yesterday was only the next-to-the-longest-day, but its behaviour was much more mid-summerish. Here is the bridge over the river in Grasmere, viewed from the Wordsworth Daffodil Garden next to the church where the poet is buried. Visitors sit outside the café overlooking the water, enjoying the sun. Holiday-makers wander over the bridge and sometimes stop to take a photo. Occasionally a line of Japanese tourists make their way over, the ladies wearing very smart hats, on their way to see Wordsworth’s grave. I hope somebody tells them which one is his - more than one person called William Wordsworth lies there, puzzling the tourists as to which one exactly wrote the poem about daffodils.

Good weather for ducks - and geese

Derwentwater, originally uploaded by byamossygnome.com.

There were heavy showers this morning and rain is described as good weather for ducks, although they probably don’t like it any more than we do. This afternoon the sun came out and it was good weather for ducks, geese and humans. The ducks snoozed in the sunshine, while geese and humans enjoyed the lake - either on it or around it. This is Derwentwater at Keswick.

Hawkshead, but nothing to do with hawks or their heads

Hawkshead, originally uploaded by byamossygnome.com.

Heavy rain today, but probably not enough to refill the lakes to their usual level. Here, on a sunnier day, is Hawkshead. The name sounds fierce, suggesting a sharp-eyed hunting bird, with business-like raptor’s beak. It doesn’t quite match the pretty village, with flower-filled narrow lanes.

It has nothing to do with hawks, however, but was called after Haukr, an early Norse settler, living in his settlement (or Saetre).

A shrinking lake

The Gondola, originally uploaded by byamossygnome.com.

Normally, if I took a picture of the Gondola from here, I would be standing in the lake among the ducks. There has been little rain recently, and the water level has fallen a great deal. Coniston now has a wide, stony shore it does not normally possess. Yew Tree Tarn, outside Coniston, has almost dried up, and a heron stood out in the mud, looking hopefully down for something to eat, while water fowl wandered among the tiny threads of water still surviving.

Well fed humans and lambs

Yew Tree Farm, originally uploaded by byamossygnome.com.

A mostly sunny day with occasional showers. One occasional shower fell while we were eating lunch outside Yew Tree Farm, so we had to gather our plates, knives and forks and scurry indoors. Before the rain began, while we were still outside, three black Herdwick lambs who shared our field (or perhaps we shared theirs) were fed their lunch, too, from bottles. Lots of satisfied, well-fed people and sheep. Chaffinches, robins and pied wagtails flew among the tables and ate the crumbs after we had finished.

Do you feel you are being watched?

Levers Water, originally uploaded by byamossygnome.com.

You thought you’d got away from the surveillance society while you were climbing among the mountains, didn’t you? No surveillance cameras up here, but you are still being watched. I am a watch sheep - like a watch dog, only woolly. Normally I perch on top of one of these big rocks and watch what is going on. If someone passes, though, I hide behind the rock and watch them from there. Nothing escapes my notice. You are being watched....

Levers Water

Levers Water, originally uploaded by byamossygnome.com.

Levers Water, high among the Coniston Fells, was called after an early owner, Lafhere - and Old English name. Lafhere might take a few moments to recognise his lake now, for it has been dammed at one end and deepened to form a reservoir and there is evidence of mining work nearby. The mountains are still the same, though. And that large stone, torn from the mountain by a glacier and dropped as the ice melted to form the first waters of the lake, must look the same as it did in his time.