Valley cloud

I went for a lunchtime stroll on Scout Scar to get an idea of how much of a walk I could fit into an hour - not enough unfortunately. Still, today it was very atmospheric as cloud was drifting up the Lyth Valley along the Scar. The morning had been grey and grim, but it brightened up at lunchtime. The small figure of a walker gives this some scale.

On a good day, in the distance Arnside Knott is visible, but today it was lost in the clouds, and the village perhaps lies below the bright spot. Certainly our climate close to the estuary is just that little bit warmer and drier than that of Kendal which is more influenced by the mountainous Lake District.

Scout Scar is a limestone hill, the steep scarp slope towering above the woods and fields of the Lyth Valley below. Away from the scarp, the hill dips gently towards Kendal, the dip running parallel to the tilted beds of limestone beneath. There is a discontinuous ring of limestone around the Lake District, the remnants of what was once a dome over the older rocks beneath, uplifted in mountain building periods long, long ago.

Looks best large.

You can also travel back in time to see a backblip from my trip down south a few weeks ago.