Sunday afternoon

Lime Craig from Creag Mhor

Loch Ard and Ben Lomond

Balquidder Munros

Campsies and the Forth and Ettrick Valleys

Ben Venue

Heather, imposible even in the snow

The snowfall had become a regular occurrence over several nights but it had never caused any disruption on the roads. By Sunday the winds had gone and I decided to take advantage of the afternoon sun and climb the hill behind the house. It normally takes about half an hour, it is steep but only 400 metres of climbing. It was not that easy today, once above 200 metres the snow was soft and deep and tiring, each step a foray into an unknown abyss and on several occasions I was thigh deep in soft snow. Although the temperature was just about freezing, I was working up a good sweat and it was a relief to reach the summit.

The views were tremendous in all directions as the sun was getting lower in the sky. I set off down and met my neighbours on the route up, they were following my body prints and thanked me for making a trail for them. I let gravity take over on the descent and had several spills in the snow. I didn't think anything of it at the time, just another short and enjoyable outing, but a week later I am still struggling with a sore back and finding walking quite painful, my first run for a week today did not do me any favours either.

Snow Trails

Braeval footbridge

Lemmahamish river bank trail

Up the Fairy Knowe

The depths of the forest alongside Park Burn

Lochan Spling loop

Homeward Bound

After a week or so of gales, dark days and wet snow, we were visited by good winter today. The overnight  freeze of the wet lingering slush was sprinkled with powder snow. The winds had abated and the skies were moody rather than mean. My running had been spasmodic over the past week; high stepping through wet snow or leaning into fierce winds are not the exercise of choice. Today was different, the shoes purchased into the powder and crunchy ice below, it was cold but without the damp and windchill of late; I was soon into a snow friendly rhythm. The only other marks in the snow were of two mountain bikes and a lot of animals. I had little difficulty convincing myself to add a couple of kilometres to my regular 9km route.

The river was swollen, the birches had been blasted by snow and there was an eerie silence even along the river bank. After running along the river to Lemmahamish I doubled back over the Fairy Knowe. I was breaking virgin snow at last but the steady climb was blockaded by a vast oak tree that had been blown down in the gales. It provided me with a tricky obstacle to negotiate; two young roe deer danced away in a reprise of a babycham advert as I clambered over the tree. It brought some fun and sparkle into the run. After this there was just a long easy run along trails that were untouched by humans until I reached the junction at Lochan Spling where I turned for home, happy that I had enjoyed a run for the first time in weeks even though it had taken 20% longer than normal.

Winter in the Lakes

Grasmere from Loughrigg Fell

Herdwick foraging

High Close Youth Hostel

Langdale from Loughrigg Fell

Helm Crag and Grasmere

St Oswald's, Grasmere

Grasmere village and Seat Sandle

Grasmere lake

Moss upholstered walls

We spent three days in the Lake District, the first winter visit in 40 years. The hills were mainly in cloud and it was grey, wet and lashed by storms. Many of the smaller shops, cafes and facilities were closed but there were still dozens of baby boomers rattling around the car parks clad in goretex whilst juggling their walking poles and umbrellas.

The hotel in Langdale provided a level of comfort that was in stark contrast to my previous visits at this time of the year in a basic hut near the Bowder Stone with no heating or facilities. We had shivered through the freezing nights in flimsy sleeping bags and climbed, walked and skied in Borrowdale during the day. We had the consolation of meeting Beryl Burton, who was staying with her family at the nearby Longthwaite Youth Hostel on Hogmanay. A more down-to-earth legend would be hard to find.

The weather on this visit was similar to the occasion when we scattered my close friend's ashes on Scafell Pike in December 1973 and then got banned from the Youth Hostel at Elterwater for arriving back late and the worse for drink, having got caught up in a darts competition in Ambleside. Other than these two occasions, I had often driven through the Lakes during the 1980s and 1990s en route to visit my family before Christmas and usually managed to climb some of the smaller hills near Ullswater before stopping to buy some presents in Ambleside.

This time we were confined to walking round the shops on a day of torrential rain and became so thoroughly soaked that we eventually retired to the cinema to watch the film, Paddington. We took advantage of the next day, which was just showery, by walking from Langdale to Rydal Water and Grasmere during which I managed a quick diversion up Loughrigg Fell. The views were etched in the grey and brown of winter landscapes but we were treated to a brief passage of brightness as we ambled around Grasmere village.

We visited St Oswald's church in Grasmere after listening to the midday peel of bells, bought some gingerbread and had a coffee in Miller Howe cafe. We walked back over Red Bank and traipsed around the gardens at High Close Youth Hostel, where I had spent a perfect summer's evening falling for a girl from Leeds whilst we listened to Bach on the record player. It was my first holiday with teenage friends and we spent 10 days climbing all the highest hills whilst I juggled our itinerary to reconnect with the girls from Leeds as often as possible.

We returned via Skelwith Bridge for tea and a cake. In the queue, I met the treasurer of Kendal Town Council. It was the first day of his retirement and his sense of humour had been honed in Leyland. He said there was little to do other than pay for the Christmas lights, collect rents for allotments, disburse grants and answer questions on whether Wainwright had really been a miserable buggar.  He explained that there had been little to do as town clerk to distract Wainwright from his misery other than to sketch and write books and, yes, it seemed to be unanimous by those who had worked with him that he was a miserable buggar; his humour was confined to the footnotes of his sketches.

The highlight of the visit was the food in the quite outstanding vegetarian restaurant, Fellinis, in Ambleside. It is part of the cinema/restaurant group that includes Zeffirelli's cinema and restaurant. These two facilities provide amazing quality food and events and are an example of how a business with passionate attention to quality and detail can uplift a community. What a contrast to the franchised mediocrity that is the staple provision of food and entertainment in the majority of our languishing small towns.

Mid Winter

Throwing out the Christmas Tree this morning I was regaled by the colours of mid winter. The orange of the bracken on the hills, the flaming red berries and the pea green shoots of the spring bulbs pushing through the leaf mould. 

The Road less Travelled

The Road less travelled might make all the difference

The state of the economy has been triangulated by three news items at the start of the new year.

• The announcement that the UK monthly consumer debt has reached £1,250m in November, the highest level since the crash in 2008. This is explained by banks competing for credit business - payday loans with plastic- and the squeeze on purchasing power as wages have failed to keep pace with inflation.
• The collapse of the parcel delivery company City Links, bought for £1 just over a year ago by Better Capital, a private equity fund, whose owners declared bankruptcy as soon as the bumper income from Christmas deliveries was achieved. It has led to 2700 staff being laid off and not even told of their plight until the end of their Christmas eve delivery runs; and then
• The strange poster from the Tories inviting us to "stay on the road to a stronger economy".

Tory politicians seem to be honing their abuse of statistics even before people have got back to work in 2015. Let's be honest, we live in a country that is dominated by corporate greed, regressive taxation, massive erosion of public services and a general disregard for the common good.

The axis of the current government, the financial sector, corporate tax evaders and the establishment have a stranglehold on power that is irrefutable. But to claim that there is a stronger economy is a dodgy declaration as evidenced by a Telegraph article today that acknowledges that the UK has "the biggest deficit of any major industrialised economy in the world."

"The UK's balance of payments deficit reached £72.4bn last year, its highest ever cash amount, that’s 4.2% of GDP. It is calculated by subtracting the value of our imports from exports, and adding things like the flows of money we send abroad, and income earned by Brits on their foreign assets. Since the start of the recovery, our balance of payments deficit has actually grown from 1.7% of GDP in 2011." This was at the tail end of Alistair Darling's attempt to inject some Keynesian economics to foster recovery, since when George Osbourne's strategy of austerity has seen the deficit rise to over 4% in the most recent year.(see chart below) And how many of all those 'new jobs' are full time or have pensions, pay a living wage or have working conditions that should be the right of all citizens.

So who do you think you are kidding Mr Cameron! The economy is not strong and underinvestment in public services means there are not even cat's eyes or white centre lines on your neo liberal road to purgatory. Taking another road, the one less travelled, might make all the difference.