Yesterday was Fiona's birthday so we went over to celebrate at her Mums in South Lakeland stopping over for a walk in the Howgills . They were lovely all clean and washed by the recent snow and ice . We solved a mystery about the scree slopes thinking for quite a while they were formed by eroded rock from above but in this case we were completely wrong because they are formed by the erosion of the soil cover which in the Howgills is very thin and made up of well over 70% small stone laid down as glacial till at the end of the last ice age . We were lead astray because the scree is nearly always near rock outcrops but the give away was that looking closer at the outcrops the scree is greatest where the outcrop forms a funnel to channel water therefore faster water more erosion . Drift geology : love it . There is even an alluvial fan effect seen on every river as the water spreads out as it comes out of the channel. You see it in a sink every day!

Barely a bird to be seen yesterday although we saw three Field fares. Fo was still very drained from her recent cold/flu so we split from the lads and they went up to the Calf the highest point in the Howgills and Fo and I pottered over to Cautley Spout and had a good look around with the binoculars . Fo's Mum was in good fettle and Fo's sister was there as well as the lads cousin India. A very nice day out and a lovely celebration of Fiona's Birthday with the food (and cake : must mention the cake : its middle class to mention the cake : Fo will be mad if I don't mention the cake although she doesn't read my blog much : if I did a cake blog maybe she would : then again I could mention the cake in every walking blog because we could have a "cake break! instead of the biscuit break on the walks) Anyway ; I've mentioned the cake !