Day out with Mum

Mum's been a bit down in the dumps lately, her nose has been giving her problems again. On top of that the weather has been dreadful and she hates the Winter. Saturday though broke bright and sunny lookedas though it might be a lovely day . We thought we'd take mum to the Lake District, always a favourite with her and try out her new portable scooter.

We set off towards the Lake District and thought we'd go the long way via Mickleton and Grassholme Reservoire rather than stick to the busier roads.

We used to have a static caravan and this is what we looked out onto every morning. The clump of trees on the horizon is reputed to be the stone age burial mound of Kirkcarron, leader of one of the Brigantes tribes who lived this area of the Pennines before the Romans arrived in England. I got out of the car to take some photos and was mobbed by the ducks who were must upset when we didn't have anything to feed them. Once we left Grassholme we continued over the dales until we reached Rheged Centre where we stopped for lunch. After that we headed down towards the Lake District and Ullswater. These photos were taken from the woods at the edge of the lake so don't reflect just how sunny it was.

This is the top of Kirkstone Pass we were now heading down towards Windermere. I've walked this a couple of times but I must say I prefer to drive these days. Kirkstone is one of the highest passes in the Lake District and the main route between Ullswater and Windermere.

Mum tried out her new scooter three times (that is we assembled and dissembled it three times) and was very pleased with it. This was despite the fact that she nearly demolished the table in the restaurant by backing into, ran over a man's foot who was stupid enough to stand behind her and took out several racks of clothing that were inconviently placed where she could back into them. As you may have guessed Mum does not believe in looking behind when driving. I have very mixed feelings about these scooters and think perhaps it might not be a bad idea if some sort of competency test should be taken before they are allowed to drive. It has given mum so much freedom and independance but I seemed to spend the day saying "watch out" or "look behind you". She was a very happy bunny when we took her home but I was shattered.