D Day. June 6th 1944

On our way back through France we called into Normandy, the site of the D Day invasion on the 6th June 1944. The French treat the day with the importance it deserves, there is so much to see here and so much to learn from the past.

We arrived at Arromanches, the site of Mulberry Harbour, a massive temporary construction made in the months following D Day, to allow troops and supplies into France. We then headed over to Pegasus Bridge and Ranville, the Airborne Bridgehad.

And this is why we keep returning to Normandy. My wife Irene's Dad, Denis Moreland, arrived in Normandy by glider in the first minutes of the sixth of June 1944. He was one of the "Pathfinders" who's role was to capture and secure the bridge over the Orne canal prior to the D Day Invasion. The bridge was captured successfully and from then on known as Pegasus Bridge, after the insignia of the 6th Aiborne Division who carried out that brave and heroic mission that commenced the liberation of France. This picture is in the Airborne Museum at Pegasus Bridge and Denis, Gunner Moreland, is in the middle of the back row, aged 19.

D Day. June 6th 1944

On our way back through France we called into Normandy, the site of the D Day invasion on the 6th June 1944. The French treat the day with the importance it deserves, there is so much to see here and so much to learn from the past.

We arrived at Arromanches, the site of Mulberry Harbour, a massive temporary construction made in the months following D Day, to allow troops and supplies into France. We then headed over to Pegasus Bridge and Ranville, the Airborne Bridgehad.

And this is why we keep returning to Normandy. My wife Irene's Dad, Denis Moreland, arrived in Normandy by glider in the first minutes of the sixth of June 1944. He was one of the "Pathfinders" who's role was to capture and secure the bridge over the Orne canal prior to the D Day Invasion. The bridge was captured successfully and from then on known as Pegasus Bridge, after the insignia of the 6th Aiborne Division who carried out that brave and heroic mission that commenced the liberation of France. This picture is in the Airborne Museum at Pegasus Bridge and Denis, Gunner Moreland, is in the middle of the back row, aged 19.

Coniston Old Man

We have been back home in Coniston just over a week now and thought it was time we tackled Coniston Old Man (again). This was the first mountain I ever climbed and it is the one I have climbed most regularly. At a height of 2,635 feet there are many higher in The Lake District, but few harder. It's a tough walk, no getting away from it, but it's a great walk in the right conditions and today the conditions were perfect.

We left the village early, around 7 a.m. To make the most of the cool morning and to beat the hoardes that would no doubt be heading along the same route later in the morning. We took the route through the Coppermines Valley, onto the Old Man road, through the quarry and up to Low Water. The views widened as we gained height and there were already one or two hardy walkers out on the trail.

The path from Low Water to the summit has had some much needed attention in the past year, but it is still a hard pull up onto the ridge and then the final push up to the top.

I must get a selfie stick......nah, maybe not. The views from the top were fabulous, but not as clear as I have seen, but it's always different. There were some interesting cloud formations adding to the general photogenic nature of the scene. There are some big skies from the mountain tops!

Our route down took us for a short distance along the ridge towards Brim Fell before veering left and down to Goats Hawse, with fabulous close up views of Dow Crags.

The path lead us down to the shores of Goats Water, an area of huge slabs of rock. The tarn itself was calm, that in itself is a remarkable feature. Usually rough and rippled by the prevailing south westerly winds, today it was calm and in the shelter of the Old Man, due to the fact that the weather is unusually, coming from the northeast.

The summer is taking hold in the mountains, just five weeks after the last snow and many of the summer mountain flowers are in bloom. The fell side is taking on a different look as the bracken comes through and the hills go bright green.

Butterwort, a small carnivorous plant that flowers in the wet areas in early June.

Mossy Saxifrage, which prefers the dry and loose slopes of the old quarry tips. The summer birds are back too. Sky larks and all the numerous different flycatchers as well as the very numerous Wheatear, seen in the photo below. We also caught sight of the less common Ring Ouzel, but they are much more elusive and difficult to capture in photograph.

Back Home

We are back home in the Lake District again, after seven weeks plus, wandering around France. It's unbelievably good to have good internet access again after weeks of snatching a connection here and there, or sitting watching the timer go round and round. It did prevent regular updates on here, which is what I had intended to do, but over the coming weeks I will post some of the pictures. There are so many to sort through, from landscapes and flowers of the Languedoc, to the Chateaux of The Loire, to the battlefields of Normandy. Meanwhile, here's one that I have taken since coming home. It is the descent into Tilberthwaite, near Coniston.

Due to a little local difficulty with the internet it has not been possible to post as regularly as i had wished. Hopefully this will be resolved soon, sorry if you are as disappointed as i am about this.

This is the view from where we are staying, 2,500 feet up in the mountains. So it's hardly surprising that the internet connection isn't brilliant.

We came across this ram on Sunday morning, he looks like he's grown a beard.

I was a bit surprised to see this pheasant up on the fells.

End of an era

Tomorrow is officially my last day of employment. After 44 years of work, it all stops tomorrow and I gain control of my own time. So now the focus is really on the next adventure, which is a long trip into France, photographing, walking and no doubt a little reflecting. Can't wait and can't wait to document it all on here.