Planning is afoot....

Things have slowed down a little in the walk planning of late: life is never straightforward is it? I have had so many things to do over the last couple of weeks that thinking about the Lakes has taken somewhat of a back seat.
Although there was one evening when I spent so much time on-line researching different walks around various combinations of lakes that I felt close to full brain capacity.  I stepped away from the computer when I realised that I had over 10 tabs open and 2 of them were the same page... which I was about to open a third time.

What I *have* managed to arrange is the date of the first walk - it's next month. I was more than a bit disgruntled to realise I wasn't going to manage any Lake Viewing this month; but then The Weather arrived (sideways) and I am now quite smug instead of disgruntled.

And my wonderful husband and personal graphic designer has printed me a map off t'internet, which I have duly pored over, labelled in my own fair hand, and stuck to the wall in the kitchen.

I have also purchased a book! Which automatically makes me an expert, no? I've already drooled over some of the pictures in it, making me twitchy to go and see the scenery for real, but then I listen to the (sideways) weather outside and remember to be smug.

What else? Well I can cross one lake off my list: because I've decided not to go ;-)

When investigating Wet Sleddale, the views seemed to match the name: a bit of a wet sleddale.
The first photo I saw (when compiling my 'not a list' list) looked lovely:

Then on closer inspection it looked a bit, well, dull:

  

So Mr. Sleddale, apologies, but I'm a shallow gal, and this is all about appearance. I've looked at your profile and I just didn't feel a connection. Sorry, but it's a 'no' from me.

(Plus, this particular reservoir is off the right hand edge of my map-on-the-kitchen-wall. So it was obviously not meant to happen.)

Investigations...

Apparently, there are 16 major lakes in the Lake District. See http://www.visitcumbria.com/lakes-and-tarns/  
Although wikipedia lists 19: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_District

Pedants (among whose number I would usually count myself) will tell you that there is only one lake: Bassenthwaite Lake.  All the others are meres, tarns or waters.  It's just nomenclature really... but if it concerns you that I am constantly referring to lakes when I shouldn't be: well I'm afraid you are just going to have to live with it ;-P

Some of the smaller lakes are just as beautiful:  http://www.visitcumbria.com/tarns/

So how am I deciding which lakes to visit? As this is an anti-stress, no pressure, not-a-list list, I am going with visiting the lakes I think are the prettiest. Or easiest. Or take my fancy at that moment in time.  Haha! A bit whimsical really.  But that's how this nearly-forty-year-old is approaching life at the moment, so that's simply how it will be :-)

So the not-a-list list as it stands at the moment is not as long as on here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_lakes_in_the_Lake_District !
But is something like :

Bassenthwaite Lake
Brotherswater
Blea Tarn
Buttermere
Cogra Moss
Coniston Water
Crummock Water
Derwent Water
Devoke Water
Elter Water
Ennerdale Water
Esthwaite Water
Grasmere
Haweswater Reservoir
Hayeswater
Knipe Tarn
Little Langdale Tarn
Loughrigg Tarn
Loweswater
Overwater Tarn
Rydal Water
Tarn Hows
Thirlmere
Ullswater
Wast Water
Watendlath
Wet Sleddale
Windermere
Yew Tree Tarn

I may yet decide that I don't want to visit some listed... they may be inaccessible, or I may go off the name, or something suitably fickle.  I may scrub a lake off the list because I find that I have to climb up a really difficult mountain to get there (as seems to be the case with some of the tarns); and remember: I'm doing this because I want to.  I am not going to over exert myself for a sense of achievement: that's not what this is about. (Of course, when I get there, I may come over all inspired and scale a few thousand feet...who knows? Never say never). But generally speaking, I'd rather be on the shores of a lake looking up at the mountains, than atop a windy summit squinting to see a lake which resembles a puddle from so far away.

So now I'm off to scour my in-laws' Wainwright walks books, as well as the wonders of the internet, for routes around or near the lakes. I've found one website already (http://where2walk.co.uk/category/lake_district/lake_discoveries/) which shows tearooms and pubs on its maps: I think I'll be using the walks on there quite a lot...

Whys and Wherefores

During this year: 2015, I will celebrate my 40th birthday.
Some friends are doing forty things in their 40th year, which is wonderful for them, but I would struggle to come up with enough ideas in time for my birthday, let alone actually do them.
I am also currently making more of an effort to be kind to myself, and setting myself a list of things to achieve in a limited time would make me prone to feeling a failure: obviously not a kind thing to do.
So instead, I chose to do something that I enjoy; and to manage as much of it as I can this year.  I will probably continue long in to my quadragenarian years: I certainly hope so anyway!

I want to walk around, (or as close to 'around' as is legally possible,) as many lakes in the Lake District as I can.
When I'm in The Lakes, the beauty permeates my mood. The stress I may have been feeling only an hour previously, seeps away and I feel so much more at ease about life.  It really is a magical* place.(*sorry to my Christian friends, I do, of course, mean 'spiritual' or 'blessed' or something.  The truth is that I can't find words which do justice to the sights of The Lakes, nor the feelings they inspire; definitely spiritual or reaching the soul, I just can't manage the prose to match my meaning.)

So enough by way of introduction, I am now off in my quest to find Lakes, Tarns, Meres, Waters and information about walks around them.