Dales, Lakes and a chance meeting.

We've just been away for a few days. We went up to the Yorkshire Dales and then on to the Lake District. The weather wasn't very good, but, you make the best of it don't you? At our Dales stop we stayed in a lovely b and b in Elslack, just outside Skipton. We hadn't been up there for a few years and we did notice some changes. We went to Grassington on Sunday. It was very quiet, but maybe that's because we'd just had the Easter holidays. There were a few farmers market stalls, but not many people. We moved on to Pateley Bridge for a look round and a nice cuppa. here it was that I saw this lovely lady. She didn't know me from Adam, but I do read here lovely blog, and I just had to stop and say "hello". What an inspiration this lady is! If you haven't read her blog, just pop over and take a look! The next day we went to Howarth......

.....very quiet, as you can see.....

....many of the shop were closed. The Souk was open and some of the tea rooms were. There is actually workmen working on relaying the stones at the moment. What a job! But, as ever I had to go into here....

....the sights, the smells, the treats, the Zambuk. I've been using it Zambuk for years, so did my mum and grandmother. I'm never without it. Over the road was an additional treat....

....ooh, let's get closer......

...we're still not close enough are we?......

....that's better. What a beautiful Jubilee window! ........After spending three days in the Dales, we moved over to Windermere. We stayed at the Hawksmoor B and B and it was wonderful. So friendly, helpful, and the food was wonderful. I would recommend Hawksmoor to anyone and everyone. You won't be disappointed. There are so many places to visit when you come up here, but as we only had a limited time we knew we wouldn't get to visit everywhere we wanted. So I'm afraid, Allan Bank, Dove Cottage and Hill Top have to wait until September. The view of lake Windermere at Bowness is delightful....

.....this was as 4.30pm, you can see how quiet it was.....

........in fact there were more birds that people......

........plenty of boats, if you wanted a trip....

......but the weather was a bit grim....

..... but we didn't really mind. It may not have been weather for taking wonderful pictures, but it was a lovely break!!!

April already, how did that happen so quickly? We went to Bakewell last week. They have a great market there, something that the city of Derby has been lacking for almost 40 years! Anyway, once we'd spent some time there we moved on to take in the views from here....

....it was a gorgeous day, and it was so quiet up there. It was quite hazy and so I couldn't get a good shot of Chatsworth from up here, but the view was still wonderful....

.....I even caught this little chap doing some "rock climbing"....

... The weather forecast for the Easter weekend doesn't sound too good. But then Bank holiday weather isn't usually very good, but, it's no good complaining about something which you can't change....

...so we'll be making ths most of it, whatever the weather!