Belgian Independence Day

Saturday July 21st is, according to my diary at least, Belgian Independence Day. In celebration of this, I took two days off work and we went walking in the Lake District.

This turned out to be quite remarkable for two main reasons. Firstly, I actually managed to get a Saturday off work, and secondly, our much abused natural world chose this weekend to unleash rainy fury on the Midlands.

Fortunately the closest we got to it was watching it on the news, drinking wine, while the sun set over the Lakes...
That brief interlude of tv aside, we spent the rest of the time walking and chilling. It was great.

It was windy...

It was cloudy...
It rained a bit...

Bethan bought some new waterproofs, so I bravely offered to test them by throwing her into the bracken...

I can('t) see my house from here...

One of us can't stand up straight...

In the process of making a walk into a scramble, which turned out to be quite off-putting for the group behind us, who then seemed to stop and spend a long time looking at maps :-)

Spot the person...

An awesome weekend. Makes going back to work a drag, but you're never more than a few days away from a day off.

Demo day...

After raising my blood pressure all week by its absence, the "Great British Summer" finally arrived on Friday afternoon in time for the demo day at Paddlesport.

I just want to say a huge thank-you to everyone who helped make it an awesome day!

Here's some photos;

Lots of cars...

Lots of people...

Lots of potential...

Lots of space...

Lots of cloud, but fortunately at the end of the day...

Hubris and Nemesis

New boat...


...busted paddles.

Summertime...

"...and the livin' is easy"

It rained. We drove to Lancaster, Fear fed us, we duffed about on Sunday morning, met up with Craig who I've not seen for ages, dithered about deciding what to paddle, then went to Wennington Weir for a play.

See, it was definitely sunny when we got on, hence the optimistic shorty usage.
(Yes, I was just jealous that I'd forgotten mine...)

Craig on the wave

Bethan either coming off the wave or completing a spin. She doesn't look happy about it though...

Matt caning it to get back on the wave

Spinning a Mamba; tricky at times, but totally worth it

"Check out my shiny helmet"

Craig looking cool

Matt with the big guns out

"Spin you b******"

(Team Sidewinder...)

After we got off, we retired for tea and medals, then retired further to the warm, welcoming embrace of the White Cross for more tea and more medals.

Happy days.

Also, say what you like about the current Labour government*, but you cannot deny that smoke-free pubs are an absolute triumph.

(*who have, in my opinion done a generally good job)