A week in the Lakes: epic views and carpets of bluebells

For once, we timed our holiday impeccably. After several rather soggy, grey "summer" trips, I reckon we were due a bit of sun. And sunshine we got - every day - in the Lake District!! Can you believe it? We were sooo lucky. And because everything was so late this year after such a long, cold winter, the bluebells were still out in force, making everywhere look even more beautiful. So, we made the most of it and were out walking every day. It was an absolute tonic and plentiful food for the soul. In true Zoe tradition, I took far too many photos - around 1400 actually (and that doesn't include my iPhone snaps!) - so I'm just going to show you a small selection here, you'll be pleased to know :)

Our first day overwhelmed me with beauty and epic views. We started out in Rydal wandering through bluebell lined lanes (noting a marvellous looking tea shop for later!) and skirted Rydal water, rising up to pass Grasmere and up and up to the top of Loughrigg Fell. It felt pretty special to be munching my sandwiches overlooking such an amazing landscape. We then descended back in a meandering fashion to Ambelside and Rydal and I reckon we'd earnt our tea and cake that day!!

Day two started out grey but blossomed into a magnificent afternoon. It was a fabulous serendipitous day - we got a bit lost and parked in the wrong car park and stumbled upon the most beautiful woodland, which turned out to be 10 times nicer than what we were trying to find!! All the beautiful green you see below was a place called Glen Mary - a woodland walk to Tarn Hows, passing by the Tom Gill waterfall. All of this is very near Coniston.

And afterwards, we found some fabulous sheep and lambs glowing in the afternoon sunshine and wandered onwards to Yew Tarn, where I found huge bright orange Rhododendrons nestling in the woodland next to a carpet of bluebells. All absolutely stunning and completely uplifting.

And then, on the way home, we passed by some more stunning scenery and gorgeous evening light bathing the countryside and just had to jump out the car to get a shot :)

I'll spare you day by day accounts of the rest as this post would never end! But I can highly recommend a circuit around Derwentwater, the walk from Elterwater to Loughrigg Tarn and the stunning Western Lakes - a very hairy drive, but so worth it - Buttermere is picture postcard perfect. So here are a few highlights from the rest of the trip...

And finally, after so many epic views, we spent some of our last day wandering around the beautiful Stagshaw Gardens in Ambleside and I swapped my wide angle lens for my macro lens and had a field day. Again, sorry for so many shots in this post - it's so hard to choose!

If you've made it this far, I'm impressed! Sorry for breaking all the blog laws and making this way too long... If you haven't had enough, you can find the rest of my photos in my Lake District set on Flickr. I've still got tons to edit, so will be trickling them up over the coming weeks. If you ever get the chance to visit the Lake District, please do - it really is a magical place - I know I will be going back - so much more to see - and so good for the soul!