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Home from Swansea and the weather takes a turn for the worse.  To be fair it took a similar turn in Swansea too.

Here in the mountains that rain turns to hail and the sleet turned to snow on the high fells again.

Today we walk with friends alongside Ennerdale Water on an outing full of changable weather.

The River Ehen as it exits Ennerdale Water and flows over the old weir at Bleach Green.

We were aware of the forecast . . . of possible wintery showers.

I'm glad we had our backs to this hail storm rather than have to walk into it.

The early summer is definitely over here in northern Britain.

As for Ennerdale, the workman have left and taken most of their equipment with them after their recent engineering works.

They've cleared most of the site but yet to remove the low green fences.

We cross the new bridge over the re-directed Ben Gill Stream . . . unfortunately it seems over-full with gravel and stone.

The reason being that a recent storm has totally undone their careful stone laid stream bed.

All the lining stones they placed have been washed into the river.  Fortunately the flood did not break the banks completely.

Personally I can't see why they needed to do this work at all.  The stream used to be culverted sideways into the lake

but they've re-naturalised it directly into the main river.  Surely the water in Ben Gill flowed over the weir and into the river anyway ?

Someone in United Utilities has made a tremendous miscalculation with this project.

It won't help the fresh water muscles, the fish or anything . . . and as a local water rate payer, they've messed it up at my expense !

Oh well . . . shake yourself back to the matter at hand . . . keeping dry in a hail storm.

That sky is getting brighter and that black cloud is moving away up the valley.

Is that blue sky I see ?

Two minutes later and the sun came out and the weather pretended that it had never hailed in the first place.

We head off towards Angler's Crag, the rocky bit overlooking the lake.

For a change we continue on the lower track rather than climb the crag on our outward journey.

Looking up from our lowly position . . . we'll choose the high road on our return leg back to the car.

The wintery shower has moved completely away leaving just a patch of white on High Stile summit.

The view is clear all the way up to Brandreth at the head of the valley from "Robin Hood's Chair" on the end of the crag,

as patches of sunshine dance their way across Red Pike/High Stile on the left and Steeple/Scoat Fell on the right.

Continuing on the lakeside path up the valley.

The gate creates a focal point for our walk.

From here we would more-or-less reverse our route, but head back over the top of Angler's Crag instead.

Finlay, Dylan and Harry fail to see why I was allowed through the gate but they were not.

Trevor leads the way up the fellside.

Somewhere over here we should find the formal path that climbs to the coll.

The ladies held back slightly, admiring the view up the lake just that little bit longer.

As we reach the coll we get a closer view of the Pinnacles higher up on Crag Fell.

Beautifully dappled fell sides surround both the head and the sides of the valley.

" What goes up . . . must come down "

Dylan reaches the gate first . . . no surprise there then.

The focus concentrated the mind on the foreground however . . . where there's a fine little Sandpiper on the rocks by the water.

there's another one twenty yards further on as well, but that one is less obvious.

The Common Sandpiper . . . one of four or five we saw flying low across the water.

They are mainly a spring/summer migratory visitor though some do over-winter in Britain.

[ Open the link in another window or tab for more details and there you can listen to its lovely call.]

He was too close to the path to hope he would stay for more photos.

. . . but he did settle on a rock a little further away.

A look back at the Pinnacles once more before we leave.

Perfectly timed.

The next big black cloud reaches the car park just as we do . . . but we are safe inside the car when the heavens open once again.

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Home sweet Home.

Sunshine and showers continue for the rest of the afternoon, such that at one point we see a lovely rainbow across the neighbouring fields.

The final sun burst of the day lights up the fells beautifully.

Whiteside resplendent in late afternoon sun.

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