Where are we?

You are perhaps wondering if we have fallen off the face of the earth.  Actually we are in my favourite part of England; the Lake District.  More on that later!

I would have written an update yesterday however the problem with the dis functional spacebar on the laptop was too depressing.   Upon our return to Sale our youngest son asked if I would help him paint his new timber fence down the side of the property. He was going to use a brush and the timber was all rough sawn planking.  As you may recall......I hate painting! Jan and I slipped away from the house to visit the large B&Q at the Trafford Centre where I purchased and electric paint spray gun.

The 10 large timber panels were removed from between the concrete fence posts and moved the the back yard where I masked them up and started painting.  It took all day to carefully paint both sides of the panels (two coats).  Meanwhile our son painted the concrete posts with a brush.  Someone had to do the dirty job and age has its privileges.

Yesterday morning we packed the rental car very slowly.  I write slowly because I was as stiff as a board after all the squatting the previous day.   We have decided to complete a grand circuit of GB. However I don't want to drive the east coast of Scotland as it's rather boring.  We haven't been through the middle of the Highlands so it's on the agenda.

But first I need to wind the clock back a few days to the post about Ironbridge as I've received some additional information from blog readers.  Mike left a comment advising the bridge at Ironbridge was recently subject to major renovation meaning the timing of our visit was excellent.  Dave also sent some information and two screen dumps from Google Earth showing the former railway alignment.  I've included one of them below.

A little more researching revealed the Severn Valley Railway (GWR) operated through Ironbridge until 1966.  Another victim of Dr Beeching?

Today we went exploring the Lake District by car.  It's my sixth visit and Jan's fifth.  I didn't take many photos as I'm sure I must have written previous posts about the area.   I like the steep hills, stone walls and white painted stone buildings.  Unfortunately I don't have the required level of fitness to walk them these days.  But I can reminisce!

We've not previously spent much time in Kendal seeing it as more of a gateway town to the area.  However today we stopped and walked through the main street before heading down to the River Kent.

The main street wasn't particularly interesting.  Then I looked up and noticed the unusual chimney pot.

Santa has his work cut on that one.

The river was very low, but then I recall the area had suffered from severe flooding some years ago.

The black and white photo is an accident!   The path in the next photo is known as 'Waterside' and was on the local maps as far back as the 18th Century.  The river provided power to watermills for the processing of locally produced wool.  Well that makes sense as the region is known for its sheep.

I'm going to stop writing here as I now have three problems.  The spacebar, the battery has gone flat in the mouse and now the internet is painfully slow.   More tomorrow.