Summer Solstice and more.

I’m  not sure how this all fitted into a week but it did!  For three days four of the Trust’s rangers were on duty to monitor the Summer Solstice activities that take place at Castlerigg stone circle.  Several hundred people arrived to celebrate mid-summer.  Unfortunately we had overcast weather so the sunrise was hidden but it didn’t seem to dampen the revellers’ spirits.  Once they had all departed, we visited the site for a clean-up operation.  With so many visitors to the site over three days we would not have been surprised if there had been some litter.  What we found was that the site had been treated with great care and any litter had already been cleared – it was hard to believe that so many people had been there just the day before.  It’s great to have people coming who appreciate and respect the area as they did.

Much of the rest of the week was used for meetings to begin our plans for the National Walking Festival at the end of October.  Maurice, our forest ranger will be leading a fungi foray; Mark, the Buttermere ranger will lead a walk around the lake and I will be leading a walk from Great Wood to Walla Crag and Falcon Crag finishing at Ashness Bridge.  Check the website soon for details about those.

http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-vh/w-visits/w-events/w-walking-festival.htm

Autumn forest colours.

A little bit of New England in the Lake District!

A carpet of fungi.

I then had a meeting to put the finishing touches to an event at High Snab Farm when Venture Scouts will be able to shear some sheep and do some dry-stone walling.

Finally, I went to help Chris, our coast ranger, with his activities for the Whitehaven festival.

Oh yes, nearly forgot that I did manage to fit in some climbing in Wales and some cycling to prepare for a trip to Spain!