St. Mary's Church, Ambleside,
Cumbria, England

Much of the photos in the gallery portray hill country scenes because hey are the main reason for my forays into the Lake District. However, many go for the more accessible honeypots such as the lakes, villages and towns that dot the landscape. Most don't make it beyond those, leaving the surrounding countryside surprisingly unpeopled for those of us wanting to escape into the peace and quiet to get away from the pressures of modern life for a little while.

Ambleside is one of those busy little places from which I have mounted a good number of getaways myself. When you get it on a quiet moment, not that there are many of those, it is not an unpleasing spot with its collection of pretty houses fashioned from slate. Above, however, is a different view: that of one of its churches. The photo may flatter to deceive, but it was made on a February morning before I pottered into Scandale. Another piece of deception, apparently, is the addition of a spire before these are uncommon in the Lake District though there also is a church with one in Keswick.

Another feature of the one in Ambleside is a mural depicting a rush bearing ceremony, a practice dating from the time when churches were floored in that way. These ceremonies were a reflection of the need to renew those floors every year and the tradition still continues in some places though modern flooring precludes the need for such rusticity.