Cumbria In May

Further compensations in the life of a rural IT consultant: yesterday I was down in Ambleside to train some customers in the use of a recently-designed website. The training took place at St Martin's College's Kelswick House, a former school halfway up the side of Wansfell above the town. The building's huge, a slate-built monolith solid as the fellside out of which it seems to grow geologically. At lunchtime I walked round to the front of the house and looked out across the town towards the Langdales. A soft haze half-obscured the peaks, but Crinkle Crags, Pike O'Blisco and Bow Fell stood out on the horizon. Closer in, the lower flanks of Loughrigg were covered in sudden greenery, while up above the bracken and the heather were still in autumn russet. Cumbria in May is an unregarded paradise, a place the world does not see: the tourists have not yet arrived (most wait till the wet months of July & August) and the heat of late spring makes walking in the hills the most exquisite pleasure. Which is how I'll be spending the next few days . . .