A walk in the countryside

A very lazy beginning to our day, then set out for a 12 km walk through the countryside. It was simply beautiful - green hills, stone fences, sheep everywhere and pleasant temperatures. The boys kept up well. The last kilometre or so home we were accompanied by a border collie x who took delight in patiently waiting for us to open gates for him along the pathway (which we did not!) then squeezing through anyway so he could run off to terrorise the sheep, returning again at the next gate when the game would start again.

Toward the end of the walk we stopped in at Lowther Castle which has an absolutely fantastic playground - even Ken and I got in on the action, taking in the slides and climbing around! The spot for the castle was established in 1150 by a viking descendant (he named the river 'Lowth - a' meaning foaming river I think), and has been in the Lowther family. There were plenty of careful and thoughtful Earls who lived here, but the one who led it wrack and ruin was an absolute feckin idiot. Plenty of human interest stories about him in the exhibition that left us chuckling and shaking our heads.
Tonight the rain is due to set in around 10pm and hang around til about 4pm tomorrow.

Our walk - 12km all up