New year in the Lake District

It’s 2012, a new year we saw in in the Lake District, where Rachel’s growing family was present in greater numbers than ever (Aurelia, daughter of her cousin Jono and his wife Gita, made her debut).

The last couple of winters had been freezing and icy. This visit was warm but wet. Very wet: in my four days there (Rachel and the kids had a couple more) there were perhaps two dry daylight hours.

We spent them walking, the kids loving the swollen stream that flows down the hill from High Dam and most of all the puddles, nearly big enough to qualify as lakes in their own right. At the end of it there was an inch of water in T’s wellies. Near-incessant rain isn’t great, but it’s better than the freezing cold, sure enough.