Classic Lake District arrival !!

After battling through summer roadworks, traffic lights and subsequent lengthy queues, I discover as usual when visiting this part of the world for hill walking in late July, that the weather has possibly let me down again. I stopped the car to take the above picture of Great Mell Fell at the entrance to the Lake District from where I travel from. The weather surely can't be worse than it was at this this time last year, when funnily enough, this was the only Fell I managed to climb in a similar five day window I had.
Looking on the bright side though, there were other colourful things to look at on arrival at Keswick.

It's also an opportunity for us all to see what some people have hidden in their wardrobe and to let the animal instinct in us all to go and hunt for food !!

Queue for lunch

Speaking of animals, It was more evident than usual that all of the family had to be literally ......dragged into town.....

... although I'm not quite sure how happy some of of them were

Lastly, although it won't attract the local day tripper, the rain is a conspiracy theory of mine that I have for Cumbria. It's an opportunity for hillwalkers as opposed to the tourists, to spend their hard earned loot ( money) in the local business's. The recent financial history of the area has not been great in the last ten years keeping tourists away with the foot and mouth problem and two or three serious floods. In addition to that, I'd rather not mention the global downturn, credit crunch......
So why not go in and "spend" the day on less than useful purchases making it an even more colourful place than it already is. It's not that long ago when there were only about five outdoor shops here, how many more of these bargain shops do we need now?