The Beautiful English Lake District
 
   I live in this wonderful place with it's mountains (fells), valleys, lakes, farms, forests and many great villages. Lots of folk have said "you are lucky" and I know what they mean but I decided I didn't want my job and couldn't think of any good reason to stay down south. So, we headed north. We stayed in a Cumbrian coastal village of Millom and waited patiently for the job to come along. I came here to Coniston, in the early 70's when I got a job as a forester with the National Trust. No local folk wanted the job, one bloke didn't turn up and another wanted a religious school for the kids so, it was mine.
  
  The next surprise was on our way to the Coniston Sawmill. We approached it coming down Hawkshead Hill, a steep, narrow, winding hill then suddenly, there was Coniston Water in all it's glory. We stopped and just gazed in awe at the sight, not quite believing we were there, looking at this spectacular lake surrounded by trees and mountains. Wow! 
 
  At the bottom of the hill was the hamlet of Boon Crag with cottages, a farm and the National Trust sawmill. We parked our mopeds and I had a quick but exciting look at the sawmill then Mike, the Head Forester, took us to our tied cottage. Almost straight away the lake appeared before us, stretching away for miles. Wonderful. We skirted Coniston village and took a narrow but two way traffic road for a mile then turned left, climbing up a very narrow winding road with a stone wall on the right and a tree covered hillside and ditch on the left. Suddenly, there's a gate across the road with sheep the other side of it. Didn't expect anything like that. I think we've arrived in the sort of place we had a dream of so, I opened the gate.

  We set off again, climbed a little, with mountains (fells) on the right which I later found out to be Raven Crag. There was also a steep drop with a wide, rocky stream (beck) in the bottom. Stray off the road and you're down in the bottom pretty sharpish. On the left the hillside (fellside), is strewn with trees and rock and steadily rises into the distance. It's feels like a narrow ravine until reaching the brow of a the hill and then it opens up a bit, still with the fellside on the left, no drop on the right but with scrubland running to a stone wall and then the beck. Some twists and turns and there up on the fellside I guessed were some broken down old quarry buildings. Onwards to the top of a hill and then there was the biggest surprise. It changed to an open green valley with fells, cottages, woodlands, a walled enclosure, a large beck, green fields, sheep and a farm. Absolutely wonderful!

 A little dip down, over the beck bridge, round the corner and there were the cottages. One cottage directly in front of us with a spinning gallery (I later found out), separated from three cottages. These cottages were 20 yards up a rough track and stood higher looking out over the fields to the woods beyond. Ours was to be the middle one. We couldn't stop smiling. We were bursting with pleasure and excitement and totally disbelieving we could live here but WE WERE HOME