Here I be.

I'm still here, just been a bit distracted. It comes to something when you see your mum and she tells you off for not having blogged for two weeks!
It's been busy, stupid busy in the run up to that last show, then the week after that finishing things and packing pots (which always takes far longer than you think it will) and then I was exhausted and just wanted to curl up and sleep. Which I did - in the Lake District for a week. Well we did lots of other things too but I slept oh so soundly for the first few days, it was great! We're not far from the Lake District, it's an incredible area, stunningly beautiful but to be honest in the summer there are far too many people about for me.
It's become a bit of a tradition that Paul and me go away for a few days over the period of my birthday so we booked a little flat just outside the village of Grassmere. It was an excellent spot, ten minutes from the village, in a rambling old house surrounded by wonderful trees. That's the thing I always think of about the Lakes in the autumn - the trees and the colours of them. Stunning.
The thing with the Lakes that you have to accept if you are going to go is that it rains. It's a mountainous region and of course mountains interrupt the weather patterns and down it comes and it isn't called the Lake District for nothing (bit of trivia though only one of the bodies of water is a lake and the rest are meres and tarns and other such things.) However if you got the right gear then it's all fine really. Thankfully we did have all our waterproof bits and bobs and it did what it does and we got some stock of rain. We did have 3 or 4 clear and beautiful days too, but a couple with a lot of precipitation.

We did lots of walking. It was brilliant, none of the whopping big hills but some great ones and some fabulous views and some wonderful meals and lovely real ale and generally a relaxing enjoyable time was had by all. A little hiccup in the final afternoon up on a ridge in the wind and the rain when Paul realised that I hadn't eaten enough and my energy level had suddenly hit zero and I was stumbling around and not really with it. Oops, haven't done that in a while, we got back, very slowly, it was dark when we got off the hill and Paul had to keep making me eat. A bit scary all round really, I wanted to just curl up behind a stone and go to sleep, thankfully I was still at a point where I knew that was not a good idea.

I have lots of photos from the area and some crazy watery videos from the day that we couldn't do the walk we planned as the path had disappeared under a couple of feet of water and in fact the bridge we had walked over the previous day was not to be see either! Amazing amounts of water around. At one point walking on the road we were carefully tip-toeing through water that was 6" deep. If I was very gentle I could just only just do it without it flooding over the top of my boots. My camera got a bit wet and stopped working, after a night on top of the heater though it's back to it's old self again.

Here we are up a hill, this was just before a black Labrador smelt the salami sandwiches in my bag and took a shine to them. It was the day after I trapped my thumb in the latch of a five bar gate and the had the weight of the thing drop off the latch onto my thumb (great colours it went but not as impressive a bruise as you would like after the pain it caused) and just after I sliced open the end of my finger in a dry stone wall that I happened to just brush against (very deep but really clean so it gushed a lit and then sealed up nicely). Clumsy? Me?
So we're back home now. Well we were until Paul left for 5 weeks in Japan except he's back tomorrow as somethings been delayed and he'll be off flying out there on sunday now. In the mean time I've got a fair on this weekend at Lochinch Castle Charity Christmas Fair, which is just outside Stranraer. Friday the 12th 3pm till 9pm and Saturday 13th 10am till 4pm. It will be full of some wonderful local art and craft and there will be mulled wine and hot seasonal food on the go all the time. It looks like it'll be a great event but I'll certainly be dressing up warmly for it. The weather here has gotten cold and crisp, today there has been thick frost on the ground that hasn't shifted all day! Brrrrrrr. It does mean that it's the season for lighting the fire and cuddling up under a blanket on the sofa with a good book.