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John and Lisa are over in Loweswater, with their dog Mac who is brother to our Dylan. 

We meet here in Loweswater for lunch and later a walk, where the dogs can really enjoy their play together,

especially if it can involve swimming in the water.

Ann, Lisa and John in our garden after lunch.

Their dog Mac looks uncannily like our old retriever Harry who passed away a few years back.  He's pictured on the right in the photo.

Technically there's no direct lineage but looking at one was like seeing the other.

The best you are going to get today . . . as Dylan is looking  away, Dougal is looking over-chilled and Mac, well he just can't see the point !

"Strange these humans and their desire for us to sit while they point things at us."

It was a lovely Monday afternoon and so I decided to take everyone down to the lake via Lanthwaite Woods.

In the distance behind Grasmoor House and Jenkin are the Loweswater fell of Blake and Carling Knott.

At the large swimming pool in the river, Dougal jumps in and paddles out to fetch a stick.

You can tell he jumped in as the first few feet has no disturbed water.

Stick retrieved, he returns to shore.

" Perhaps someone will throw it in again if I look enthusiastic enough ! "

John and Lisa stride out around the large bend in the River Cocker, just upstream of the swimming pool.

The lake is looking lovely today as we reach the weir and footbridges.

Our two lead the way over the bridge but Mac doesn't look quite so certain.

Perhaps he's eyeing up Dougal's stick or perhaps he feels the way forward is rather blocked by his two new mates ?

A lovely day with calm waters on the lake,

as we admire Grasmoor and the boathouse from this side of the pond.

Taken from altitude . . . the view from a full six feet in the air as I cross the Park Beck bridge.

Mac is the whiter, more champagne coloured of the three dogs.

A McCreton panorama this one, as I seem to feature to the right as I walk the wall towards the small beach on The Peel.

Ahead of me are the small group of Crummock Pines.

Back in the last century, in the storms of 1999 I think, several of the trees were blown down.

They now lie alongside the path, decaying naturally back into the soil.

They make good seats if the weather is sunny and the logs are dry.

Sadly, this summer someone decided to build a fire on the grass in front of them leaving a burnt patch that will take years to grow over.

Some people have no concept of the wider effects of what they are doing.

The view through the trees that edge the shoreline of The Peel.

I'm looking south towards Rannerdale, Haystacks and distant Great Gable.

Sandy Yat Beach . . . sand (well pebbles) and a yat (gate) give it its name.

We close this walk "in style".

Lovely to meet with John and Lisa in person for the first time,

and for Dylan to meet his brother, his first time since their litter-puppy days six years ago