Christmas Day on Gummer’s How

It was minus 11C at 10am on Christmas morning but the sun was shining.  After several days of snow the hills were glistening white and the scene was so beautiful that I could hardly keep my eyes on the road as I drove to the hotels.  At Damson Dene some guests had built a Snowman, which they inexplicably named Al Gore.

I took some photos and then, as the road to Newby Bridge took me past Gummer’s How,  and as I was wearing my walking boots, couldn’t resist the temptation to walk to the summit.  The views from the top of Gummer’s How are some of the best in the Lakes- you can see the whole of Lake Windermere with the mountains on one side and Morecambe Bay on the other.  Today,  low cloud covered the lake, but the scene was especially beautiful.  On a summer’s day the hill will be packed with walkers but today, uniquely, I didn’t see a single person on the climb up or on the way down, (possibly because the snow was knee deep in places) but there was one solitary soul at the summit, who turned out to be a good friend, Keith McClure.
Here is a slideshow of the photos taken on that day, accompanied by ‘What a Beautiful Day “ by the Levellers.