Mixed Bag

Thank you for all your lovely comments and good wishes while I've been away and especially for your comments regarding my grandson's 4th birthday.

I left a cold Sweden -14 degrees centigrade when I left, brrrr...
and flew to a cold UK!
Can you believe it, there was snow at Stansted?

I spent a night at Stansted because my connecting flight to Newcastle upon Tyne was first thing in the morning, and there was a further light dusting of snow overnight!

After a couple of days in the north east of England, (I stayed with a friend in Newcastle), I travelled west into Cumbria. I took the scenic route over Alston Moor.

Always a lovely route.
It was still cold but at least the sun was shining a little.

Snow appeared the further west I travelled.

But not as much as I had left in Sweden.

I stayed with my sister and her family in a lovely Eden Valley village.
Approaching the village I came across this chap.

A buzzard, quite common in the valley.

And this little chap, a robin, was taken from their window. Quite common in the UK and used a lot on Christmas cards, but I can't remember seeing one in Sweden.

The weather was poor for just about all of my visit.

Cold.

It felt colder to me than it does in Sweden but it wasn't.

It rained.

This is the River Eden which flows through my sister's village, it's well over the banks

At the weekend we ventured into The Lake District to one of my favourite lakes.

Ullswater.

This time it was windy.

Very windy as well as cold.

I was hoping to get some good shots here at least.
But although there was some low cloud which I hoped would add to the atmoshere it didn't translate to the picture.

Shame.

We had a family time at my sisters and celebrated my grandson's birthday when he and his mum joined us for a couple of days.

We had a fun time.

Then it was time to return to the north east.

The weather continued to be miserable.

And I only ventured out for some photos when I went as far as Heddon on the Wall.

A village close to where my children live.

I was hoping to get out much more on my visit and take more photos than I have.

But the weather conspired against me.

But I did get to see family and catch up with some friends, unfortunately not all.

The time I spent with family more than made up for the weather being miserable.

And although I didn't take many photos out and about,

the camera was full of photos when I got back,

mostly of my grandson!