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...