Last Wednesday I went with the family to Borrowdale in the Lake District . We parked up at Seathwaite and the lads went up to Sty Head Tarn , Sprinkling Tarn, up the rocky Great End , Broad Crag and then onto Scafell in gorgeous sunshine made interesting by clouds skimming the tops for a few minutes looking rain bearing and ominous but it was dry all day . Fiona and I headed off down the Borrowdale Valley looking for interesting plants , birds and Red Squirrels but mostly just enjoying the narrow closed in valley that folds you up within its sides and interests the eye and heart. There were many boulders lying around from the Ice Age and as we crossed the river into the woods the path went very close to the river , so close that chains had been put on the boulders to hold onto as we shuffled around the path . Or , were the chains there to shackle the Mommy Monster that is known to stalk the valley and this is obviously true because there she was not there . I looked over my shoulder several times and swore I saw her . At Castle Crags I had a good poke around the slate tips looking for graptolites and think I saw them and this time I had my hand lens but I'm still not sure . Got to look at lots of field pictures of them . Onward to Grange through the Hazel and Oak forest and we went to a Cafe we'd visited years ago and the nice man vaguely remembered us because we were winter visitors . Munching over, we trundled back down the path and as I glanced along to an open gate I saw something light tan brown whisk up the gate post and thought it was a stoat , but stoats rarely climb after crossing a track they just disappear into the grass and then following the wall something jumped into the tree , I still couldn't see it , but it now had to be a Squirrel and in this valley there is only on kind , the Red Squirrel, which I'd never seen before so I tracked through the trees until it got to its destination a nut laden Hazel tree and proceeded to steadily munch its way through lots of nuts for as long as Fiona and I were there looking at it . It was amazing , about 10 metres away and very good viewing through the binoculars and I could see the teats on this fine female. After this we stopped at Rosthwaite for a cuppa and cake and this village has great memories for us because we started off our marriage there on honeymoon over 23 years ago . We sat down to tea and looking over the fields towards the magnificent Castle Crag. Laughs are never far away with Fiona and me and a large group of people came into the garden so we were just about to go and got up to let them have our table when a man said "Ah you know the Germans are coming so you are leaving " " Err, no problem mate" I said " My wife here is Latvian German and her father was in the Luftwaffe in WW2!" . The man groaned deeply and muttered a thankyou and several of the group waved at us when we walked past them settling for their teas. They all used there left hands I noticed ! What a hoot! Just before we got back to Seathwaite to meet up with the lads I saw what looked like some sort of post glacial barrier that quite likely held a lake behind it and whilst I've already had a look to see if this it the case I've found little about it . Time to get into the underground geology sources ! There are parts of the 'net few people go to except intrepid geology travelers! We met our lads one of which looked pretty wasted, Clifford, the other , Miles , who looked like he'd do it all over again and 10 miles of 3000 foot walking had ticked the parental box of keeping the doggies fit and resolute. A great day out and we are going back in the Autumn.