Walking on the longest day

Thank you for your lovely comments about our solstice wild camping - it was a truly magical experience only made all the more special by the appearance of the owl and the shooting stars and the mist first thing in the morning.

Thank you too Cathy - The House with the Blue Door for asking how my exams went - well, like all exams they were quite stressful and I am extremely glad that they are over and done with. I won't know my results for some time as once they are marked they are sent off to be externally invigilated and the board only meet every 8 weeks - so I wait!


Back to my summer solstice waffle - We had arrived at our solstice wild camping hill later than we had intended as we'd had just completed a wonderful walk earlier in the day.

The four of us and Getting-old-Giddy-dog parked in the lea of Pen-y-Ghent - one of the first hills I walked up when I originally arrived in the UK. It amazed me then and still amazes me now with its arresting profile.

It was a most deliciously sunny day and at every stream the dog dipped her toes and her tongue in - occasionally lying down for a bit of a wallow.

It felt like we were the only ones on the hills and of course I had to bring some knitting along. The meadows were filled with wild flowers and at one point we came across a swathe of brilliant orange. We were captivated by the vivid colour of the (I presume) eascaped garden mimulus.

On one of our stops we sat deep in a meadow and I was mesmerised by the most delicate seed heads of the quaking grass (Briza maxima) - perfect little flattened heads twinkling in the breeze.

Eldest read his book, entertained by a different means, I returned to the view and the quaking grass.

By the end of our walk the sun was going low and we had a date with a hill and a sunset. Time to leave.