I’m kinda digging the new layout for the site. Still not quite got the hang of the whole blocks thing, but I’m sure we’ll get there. Not sure I share the same confidence with the new job. Well, I say new, but it’s been pretty much 7 months now. They must be reasonably happy with me I guess because I passed the 6 month probationary period last month. Anyway, that’s enough boring work nonsense. In much more interesting news last month saw Clarence and I return to the Lakes and I made a start on some remedial paintwork on the bug!
A few days prior to the last post, I’d bottled the latest batch of beer I’d made but hadn’t tasted it at the time of writing. Because it’s a wheat beer, I called it Double Digit in honour of the legendary night at the Schwarzwaldstuben in Berlin. And you know what? It was really, really good! I can’t think of too many things that I’m genuinely proud of, but producing that is definitely one of them. So much so that there’s another batch of it currently bottle conditioning behind the sofa!
Admittedly it’s not quite the standard of the beer on offer at the Black Bull in Coniston, but then the guys at the Coniston Brewing Co have been doing it for slightly longer than I have! But it was off to Coniston that Clarence and I headed the week before Easter. I’ve been chewing over the idea of buying one of those event shelters for when I’m away in the bus on my own, but figured that it would be worth seeing just how difficult it would be to put the awning up on my own before committing to another couple of hundered quid on that.
Darryl used to have the same awning and reckoned it would be a bit of a handful to put up with only one pair of hands. So I thought I would have a play with my thoroughly underused GoPro and try out a timelapse video, just to see how cross I would get with it. Remarkably, I didn’t get cross at all! I’d like to think that’s down to my excellent planning!
4th Time Lucky
Sunday saw me finally make it to the top of the Old Man of Coniston for the first time since I was a teenager, but by jingo it was windy up there! I’d originally planned to wander across the tops to Wetherlam – a hill that kicked my ass 25 years ago – but I was genuinely struggling to stay on my feet at times so beat a retreat down to the Black Bull via Levers Water, the home of the Asrai.
Whilst having a couple of restorative pints of stout and enjoying listening in on the conversation of the group at the table next to me (“Sue and I are on the verge of turning vegan….”) I was given a lovely surprise when a certain Oliver Sloman wandered into the pub 24 hours earlier than expected!
As there was more wind forecast the following day, we stayed pretty low and enjoyed a very pleasant walk to Tarn Hows and back. Whilst it was dry and the sun was out for a good portion of the day, it certainly wasn’t warm enough to barbecue so we ate at the Black Bull again. And Oli managed to knock over almost an entire pint of stout……
Tuesday saw us pootle across to Wasdale, which was certainly an interesting drive! I can see why the view down Wastwater is apparently one of the nation’s favourites because it’s stunning. The National Trust site there is in a great location and once the renovation work on the shower block is complete it will be a smashing little site. My only issue is that the campervan pitches aren’t necessarily that well suited to erecting an awning in terms of their shape (although we did manage).
The Highest Mountain in England
The walk up Scafell Pike is not fun. Not because it’s paticularly difficult, but it’s downright dull. The views are great, but there’s a mile and a half stretch that is pretty much just like climbing stairs. Anyway, we made it to the top and it was cool to look across at the summit that I’d stood on a few days previously. It was also good to see the Langdale Pikes from a different angle. If I ever go up that hill again I think it will need to be on the route across from the Langdale valley, just because I think it’s a more interesting walk.
And that pretty much takes care of the trip to the Lakes. I chilled out in the sun on the Thursday as Oli headed home (there may have been a touch of sunstroke) and then tootled home myself on Good Friday. Some of the queues coming into the Lakes as I was going in the opposite direction were mental! The rest of the Easter weekend was spent finishing up some of the paintwork I’d started to sort out on the bug’s wing a few weeks earlier. Having left that a week or so to harden, that then got a good cut and polish last weekend. For a rattle can job I am super pleased with it – although we’ll see just how it looks in the daylight when we head down to Stanford Hall this weekend…….
