Festival time again brought Michelle and I back to the Lakes for
meditation, relaxation and a bit of exploration. We spent the first few
days at the Manjushri Buddhist Centre chilling out and listening to very
profound teachings from Geshe Kelsang. Camping once again, we were quite
lucky with the weather since although it rained, the sun came out to dry
our tent before we packed up.
For
the second part of out holiday we headed not very far up the road to
Coniston, home of John Ruskin and speed demon, Donald Campbell .Our first night in the
B & B and the heavens opened! Torrential rain and storms that evening
made us glad that we were no longer camping and sorry for the poor buggers
still out there!
After
the evening's rain, the next day saw us hiking in the hot sunshine through
Grizedale forest in search of the Red Squirrel. Alas no squirrels but we
did see plenty of butterflies. If only they would keep their pesky wings
open long enough for me to tale their photo! Along the route there were
supposed to be several sculptures or works of art but we only managed to
find one out of the three on the map!
Being
much quieter and less touristy than Keswick and Windermere, Coniston has a
charm of its own, with the Old Man overlooking the village and the quaint
pubs providing great food and beer at the end of a tiring day.
