Yesterday we were hiking in the South Lakes area to go up the Old Man of Coniston. There is some interesting geology up there because the first part of the walk is on different rocks, Silurian, from the second part which is on Borrowdale Volcanics. There is also a nice bit of Ordovician limestone to look at. That's if you can find it. At the start of the walk we saw three buzzards close overhead and I was very excited about all the rocks we were going to see. We headed off for Goats Water and because we had to cross a Ordovician limestone belt I was hoping to see some of those rocks. But I couldn't find any or they were not exposed there. As we approached Goats Water we were on volcanic rocks and the many tuff boulders made out of volcanic ash were great to see. The whole of Dow Crag nearby is made up lava Just before we got to the lake I was desperately keeping my eyes out to see some glacial striations, grooves in the rock where the ice from the corrie mixed up with the rock that had been plucked from the cliffs had ground along the bottom of the valley as well as part of the sides. I couldn't find that either! After a small exciting detour because I thought I had found my striations but realised they weren't the rest of the family headed on up to the top of the Old Man of Coniston and I stalked around Goats Water looking for my glacial grooves and I did find them. I then headed across country off the path which was huge fun to Blind Tarn and waited for my family to turn up. While I was waiting I heard a high screeching sound down below. We had heard this on the way up. This time I could locate where the sound was coming from and I'm pretty sure it was a pair of eagles that I was looking at through my binoculars although it may have been goshawks. I have yet to confirm it either way. Because we were picking Fiona's mother up to take her out for a meal we walked very quickly the 3 miles back and that was great. Striding out going downhill is really good fun. We had a meal at the Jade Fountain in Barrow in Furnace and it was a really nice restaurant. A good day and I picked up some interesting rock samples to look at.