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Before the recent fine weather, believe it or not it rained. Still there's no such thing as bad weather . . . it's just being out on the wrong day !

The changeable conditions however, do bring their own joys and we need the rain to keep the lakes topped up.

Today the bad weather arrived early, but also left early, which was the bonus.

We all met up at the Buttermere car park at 9.30 . . . "early for him" I can hear you say.

It was Gill's idea to start the walk off with breakfast after her (car) journey over Honister Pass to get here.

Like my two golden retrievers, I've been known to be influenced by the offer of food, so who am I to object ?

Honoured to have two ladies on the walk today . . . Gill and Loes.

We started in fine style with refreshments at Syke Farm Cafe.

Half an hour or so later, we looked outside to find the afternoon's bad weather had arrived early.

The cafe car park in the farmyard was full, obviously others had had the same idea as Gill, a gastronomic start to the day.

It was with full waterproofs on that we headed out to Scale Force, across the other side of the valley.

I'm trying to get Dylan and Dougal to walk along the log each time we pass.

Dougal is getting the hang of it . . . but you can't teach old dogs new tricks . . . they can't see the point of it !

As we reach Scales Bridge we see that the river's relatively low for this time of year.

	- - - o o o - - - The dryer conditions has not put off the seasonal instincts of the frogs and there were many pools with large deposits of frogs spawn alongside the path. This area is always renowned for being a bit damp so they should survive to grow into the next generation of amphibians. - - - o o o - - -

The rain increased somewhat . . . and was blowing into our faces and lenses !

The bridge at Far Ruddy Beck, with a damp view across to Scales Islands and Rannerdale Knotts on the other side.

All smiles despite the poor weather, it's just nice to be out.

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When I walked Mellbreak a few days ago The Mob passed the medieval village near Scale Beck.

There was talk of more hut circles on this side of the river, so I kept an eye out as I walked along.



There were groups of stones and various mounds . . .	. . . hidden amongst the winter bracken close to the paths.

. . . as well as some more modern looking structures.

More piles of stones where there was no obvious natural reason for them being there.

The path leads us onward and upward towards the Scale Beck and the Black Beck Valley

The col between leads over to Mosedale and Floutern Pass.

- - - o o o - - - The middle path that we took across the fellside brought us over to Scale Beck, but our way was restricted by the stone walls so we needed a slightly steeper climb to bring us to the gate leading to the waterfall. - - - o o o - - -

Another small walking group ahead as we do a slight upward diversion close to the falls,

to show Gill the spoil heap and covered over (iron mine) addit that can be found alongside the falls.

It was not found to be commercial and was abandoned soon after starting.



Loes had made her way down to the bridge and called the dogs.	No need to stop for refreshments today . . . already done that !

There was a reasonable amount of water in the waterfalls and we could see up to the top of the top section as the winter trees were not in leaf.

Visit over, we head back up the red coloured path to the gate.

It stopped raining a while back and hoods are no longer needed.

[ We didn't throw them away as they may be needed another time ! ]

Our objective achieved, we took the upper path by the hawthorn trees, back towards Buttermere.

The air is clearer but the damp conditions underfoot make for slippery conditions.

What's that . . . a patch of sunlight on Grasmoor . . . things are looking up.

Our lack of concentration on the way back found us taking a rather damp middle way,

but we rejoined the dry ground and headed back towards Ruddy Beck.

These two later walkers were heading out on the drier path which stays high on the fellside.

It follows an old wall and vague line of old hawthorn trees that we passed earlier.

Same ladies . . . same bridge . . . but better weather on the way back.

The river at Buttermere Dubbs.

Rather than cross on the first (Scales) bridge we continued up the valley to cross by the second one (Dubbs) at the foot of Buttermere.

Fleetwith Pike at the head of Buttermere as we reach the lake.

	- - - o o o - - - I realised that we hadn't taken a group photo of the dogs so I better put that right here. Dylan is closest, Dougal in the centre and Finlay on the right. Finlay is slightly darker and about six months older than Dylan but they are all equally wet on a day like today. - - - o o o - - -

On the way back to the village Dougal jumped onto and walked along the length of the log.

Dylan still couldn't see the point.

More moisture on the lens again . . . but this time from the condensation, as we reached the warmth of the Croft Cafe.

	- - - o o o - - - It was about lunchtime especially as Gill had had an early start today. A committee decision concluded it would be churlish to advertise one cafe over the other . . . so we stopped for lunch. Another nice cafe visit. Sorry, you were too slow for a photo of lunch so here's one of the washing up ! - - - o o o - - -

From Croft it was just a short walk back to the cars at the end of the walk.

The 2 hours 40 mins walk time does not includes the sociable stops either side of the excursion.

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Bonus . . . you may have heard it here first :-

There's a local group of valley people who are getting together to build a new hydro electric generator here in Buttermere village.

Like the one at Seatoller, all we will potentially see is a small stone clad building in the trees this side of the (white) village hall.

It will draw a small amount of water from a new weir higher up Mill Beck and return it to the river here in the village

thus generating power that can be used here in the village, with the surplus being sold to the 'grid'.

To me, Hydro is the best possible type of power source as it draws on the extensive water resource of the area and when done in this small way

has only the smallest impact and minimum disruption for the shortest period of time, yet still produces clean energy.

A plan is in the offing but nothing has been finalised as yet.

There will be a local public meeting in The Yew Tree Hall on Thursday 21st April, 7pm to hear more about it.

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