Hazy Day

While the Land Rover was having its Make-Money-Disappear functions tweaked we soothed our souls on and around the shores of Coniston Water.

Smoke from a bonfire had merged with a morning mist and hung in a thick ribbon in the still morning air above the lake. Above the haze the sky was as clear and as blue as you'll ever find in the Lake District. The blue reflected in the glassy smooth water and the autumnal shades on the trees were psychedelically enhanced through my rose-tinted glasses. Usually when you remove your pink lenses the world can look a bit drab, but not on this day.

We found a log to sit on by the shore. A fighter jet, a helicopter and a tiny sea-plane were the mechanical reminders that we were grasping at a few minutes retreat from the twenty-first century. Ruskin would be pulling out his wiry old beard!

T

Autumn Pit Stop

We are back in the Airstream after staying with Pete's parents while the trailer was being repaired and serviced. Followers of this blog may remember that a wheel fell off about a year ago. Well, we have returned to Cumbria for the first time since then and had the damaged side panel replaced. We felt a twinge of tension as we drove along the same road where the incident happened and remembered the exact spot as we passed it. Well, we had stood there for about an hour in the darkening, rainy dusk, waiting for the recovery vehicle. Click here for a reminder of the story.

I had to avert my eyes as John and Scott removed the old panel. It was a cross between a visit to the dentist and watching a documentary about face lifts. You know that some brutality is inevitable for a renewed outcome, you're curious to know what is involved in the process, but you have to watch through your fingers.

Here's the old panel...

...And the new one.

Now it's all smooth and new. The trailer has had it's annual check up, it has had a power wash. The rig looks renewed and proud and we are very happy to be back on board. Needless to say, we have been obsessive about torquing the wheels since last year's painful incident.

And by the way, since arriving in Cumbria a fault developed with the airbag system in the Land Rover, which has also had to be fixed. I'm sure that all of our previous vehicles added together were cheaper than the upkeep and repairs on the Land Rover. Plus, it has occurred to me that one of the reasons we hunkered down in one place for six months from last November to March was because we'd had the trailer wheel fall off, four new tyres and repairs to the suspension on the Land Rover, then someone without insurance drove into us on a dark and misty night. Her old banger came off worse than our big ol' tank but that wasn't any consolation to our bank account. Going anywhere would just have been tempting fate.

T