Sunday 19 September 2010

A Damp Castle Crag

 An early start was called for so that I could deliver a couple of the completed Wainwright in Colour Fells this morning. Fortunately the deliveries were over in the Borrowdale area so I was able to incorporate a walk with the plan. The weather forecast was pretty poor so I opted for a simple low level route to Castle Crag. At about 8am the low cloud looked as if it would spoil my chances of even obtaining the one reference that I was after today. This was a reference which I should of ticked off on my previous visit to Castle Crag a while ago but due to the fact the subject was from a completely different fell I missed the connection.
 So today I would hopefully get the shot and also give Bailey the chance to tick off another Wainwright.
On Castle Crag.
As can be seen from the picture, the low cloud had been matched with rain by the time we reached the summit. On clear days there are fine views from here of both Borrowdale and to the north but today we were shrouded in mist. never mind, there is always another day and besides, I did get my reference!

Thursday 16 September 2010

Recording the changes

  One of the most often asked questions to me regarding the Wainwrights in Colour project is "Have you seen many changes since AW's day?" The usual answwer to this is "tree growth" in many of the views where AW indicated small trees in the foreground these have now usually grown up to such a height that they can obscure the view in part or in full. On other ocassions there is evidence that the rock scenery has changed with portions of crags having broken away to change the profile of the rocks face. The most dramatic of this so far has been on Gavel Pike, Seat Sandal.
  However, in a painting that I have completed today there is evidence where man's intervention has "re-shaped" the rocks. It is on the summit of Gowbarrow Fell. In the early '50's the summit sported a small pile of stones as the summit cairn, nowadays these rocks have been gathered together and formed into a Trig Point. In the past I hadn't taken much notice of these columns and for some reason assumed that they were constructed around the first few decades of the 20th Century. Obviously not, and with a bit of research it appears that they continued to appear right up until 1962.

Gowbarrow Fell.
What makes Gowbarrow fell unique in all of the 214 fells is the fact that this is the only fell where since AW's visit the cairn has been replaced by a Trig Point. it also gets sketched twice, once for here in the Gowbarrow Fell chapter and once again in the Little Mell Fell chapter.

Monday 13 September 2010

Sunday evening on Sheffield Pike

As the forecast for the start of the coming week doesn't look too promising I took the dogs once again over to the eastern fells for a walk. Like all of my routes at this time nothing is hap-hazard but planned to obtain as many of the remaining references as possible in the quickest amount of time. Todays route was no different and if things went according to plan I would get the remaining references for three fells.

 The full details of this route are now online with the photos at http://www.theteesdalegallery.co.uk/ but basically it was a start at Glencoyne, up the valley to Nick Head, drop down to the old Sticks Reservoir, back up to Sheffield Pike, across to Glenridding Dodd (just so Bailey could tick off another fell!) and then back to the car in Glencoyne past the quiet cottages at Seldom Seen.
 All in all it was a good walk out, unfortunately the evening sun failed to appear and I did fail to get one reference but it was well worth the trip over.

Saturday 11 September 2010

Damp on Dollywaggon

  Just to prove that I do actually own a full set of waterproofs (and to test that they still work) I headed over to Dunmail Raise again to try and confirm the location of the elusive cascades in Raise Beck. There cant be many ocassions where poor weather has helped in my reference finding but after the recent rains I reckoned that the water flow down Raise Beck would be an advantage in locating the watefall that I looked for a few days ago. Conditions were excellent if you love waterfalls but pretty dire for walking.

Raise Beck in Full Flow
From the top of Raise Beck, and after locating the required photo, we headed up to Dollywaggon Pike and along to Helvellyn via Nethermost Pike. Low cloud and rain were the conditions of the day and the dogs really did enjoy themselves despite the looks in the photos! Unusual to be all alone on the summit of Helvellyn in September but considering the condition, not surprising. The full set of photos are now online: http://www.theteesdalegallery.co.uk/

On Location gets a re-vamp

  When looking at the gallery website over the past few months I had decided that it needed a bit of a "tweaking", I reckon that there are in the region of 750 pages now on the site, mostly related to the Wainwrights in Colour project or my days out on the fells. It was rather complicated to find on the site the days on the fells if they were completed over six months ago.
 As the website features day out on all of the 214 Lakeland Fells I considered that this resource needed re-organising. So, over the past few weeks I have been linking and re-shaping these pages as well as Teesdale pages so that they should be easier to find to the website viewer. What has resulted is a "new look" On Location page. The work is now almost complete and just needs a few final adjustments. I would be interested to hear any comments from visitors to the website.

Thursday 9 September 2010

Whin Rigg Complete

  There is something special about completing this fell. Not only has it one of the three "double page spreads" and all the seven Pictorial Guides but it also has the sketch of the "April Fool" Fish sign. (See the Whin Rigg page of the Wainwrights in Colour for the full story)

Wastwater Screes
 I recall that it was after a good walk over Whin Rigg and Illgill Head with a return via the notorious Wastwater Screes path that we returned to the car just as the last light of the sun was striking the face of the Screes. It was a glow which I will remember for ages as the sun was only on the scree as low cloud was shading the fell tops. I stood until the glow had gone, almost mesmerised by the sight. A great end to a great day. The small image above hardly does the scene justice.