Into the hills

I had the day off today and as soon as Dan and Abi had set off for school and I'd tidied the kitchen, I took the M6 north to visit @intothehills. The ten miles of motorway from junction 36 has some breathtaking scenery and on a clear sunny day like today the journey was a treat in itself.

Man, it was nice to see ITH after so long! We had a walked planned for this morning but first we had coffee in the beautiful garden office that he has built for himself, a project that is simply incomprehensible to me, who gets anxious at the thought of putting shelves up.

Drinks finished but conversation flowing, we grabbed Missy - the canine component of the ITH family - and headed out. It's a beautiful area and on a day like today I was overjoyed at the prospect of a long walk and a thorough catch up, which is exactly what we had.

I'm not sure of the name of the hill we walked up but I was very glad of all the running I do! And then I took a childlike joy in skipping across the limestone on the way down.

It's a bit startling to think how long I've known ITH. We first met at a business networking club in 2004 and our friendship developed in an easy fashion over the seventeen years since, mostly in the coffee shops of Kendal. I guess that goes some way to explain how we could chat away for a couple of hours and still have more to talk about over another coffee before I set off for Salford.

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Reading: 'Touching The Void' by Joe Simpson