After a gap of sixteen months, we were able once more to visit our cottage in Cumbria and some of our favourite walks.  

A brilliant day weather-wise to start with, so we drove up into Lorton.  Everywhere there was the sound of running water to accompany us, the grass green, but not wet to impede us.

Here, sheep and lambs taking their ease.

At high Lorton, this delightful sheltered garden right on the river.

And an outhouse on staddle stones over the river itself.  Was this the outdoor privy or the wash house in days gone by?

Up a gentle slope, by Cumbrian standards, and across a field.

On the horizon, Hopegill Head and Hobcarton.  We have vivid memories of climbing up the end of this not that long ago.

In the evening, we took a picnic supper up the coast.  Spread out before us, the grand panorama of the Solway Firth with the Scotch Hills beyond.  

We were sitting on our picnic chairs in a little sheltered dell when a lady with dog happened past.

"You just need a big telly, just there," she said, "and you could be watching the football."