Deja vu!

Sue's son, John, decided to come walking with us this week as he had some time off. As he'd never been to the Derwent valley before, we decided to repeat the walk we did a month ago so he could see the area. This is a shot again (I know - you've seen it before, but it's a classic) of the viaduct. We noticed that the res' was a lot lower than when we came last, despite some rain.

Looking at this shot, it was even more obvious. A lot more of the pipe supports were revealed, and the grass on the hillsides looked parched.

You can see the difference here - this was taken a month ago.

As we walked up through the forest, I commented on the fact that, had we been in France, we would be seeing lots of lizards basking in the hot sunshine. About 15 minutes later, low and behold, this little guy ran across the path in front of us. Sue noticed it, but I missed it, so I stood stock still and waited.......... suddenly, he popped back out - can you see him?

No? Here's a closer look.

There was some pretty impressive fungi about too. I've no idea what this one is, but if it was a good eater, I would know it. It was pretty big though.

You can see here with my hand for comparison.

We also found a penny bun, or cep (boletus edulis - which you can tell by the name, IS an eater), and it went into Sue's sack, to be added to a pasta meal the next night. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boletus_edulis

As we climbed up to Alport castles, we looked back to see the farmer lining up the grass to dry and collect before it rained. The patterns looked really good from here.

There's a small pond just below the castles, and we think that's why we saw lots of these beautiful blue damselfly. They sat for me while I took pictures.

After declining to top the towers of the castle, John and Sue started the descent to the reservoirs again, pausing to take in the magnificent views from here.

This top reservoir didn't look too low. It was a nice last shot before we started back home.