Count Your Blessings #43 – Christmas Eve Family Walk

We are so privileged to live within driving distance of some of the most beautiful countryside. We are busy people though, and carving out time to enjoy them requires precision planning sometimes. The lead up to Christmas is one of the most busy times with both Sue and I involved in organising events at church, and the kids both involved in extra activities.

It was a real blessing, therefore, to be able to carve out a whole day on Christmas Eve and to be able to get up to the Lake District. Leaving from Preston the weather looked like it might not be the best for walking, it was foggy. As we drove north the fog got thicker and the temperatures got lower. Being British though we carried on regardless. It’s one of the traits of our national heritage that once we start something we see it through to the end, no matter what the consequences. Climbing out of Kendal though it all changed. We moved above the fog into a glorious crisp sunny winters day. It was like springing from one day into a completely different day in less time than it took to say “wow”.

We had already set our sites on walking around Rydal Water where we were to explore the caves and enjoy the peace of the lake itself. Rydal Water sits in a basin between a number of different hills and is regularly flat calm. We weren’t disappointed. The sun shining on the brown colours and the flat calm lake made for a view that took our breath away; the cold air adding to the experience.

Jonathan had taken some climbing rope with him which helped us to get into most of the caves even though it was quite icy. The caves are man made, resulting from iron ore mining and are vast spaces.

It was a great day which we finished off with a late lunch in Ambleside.

Some people have the ability to capture the sense of a place, its peace, its beauty, its tranquility, its connectedness, I don’t but I hope the picture give you a sense of a glorious day.

There are things in life which are done which are routine; there are other things from which we build memories that live with us and make us who we are. For some reason it’s not the routine that builds the memories but the extraordinary, the things outside of the routine. Our walk around Rydal will be a memory that we will take with us.