12th April 2009

Up in the mornings again, bright eyed and bushy tailed - I wish.

When the alarm goes off at 4.45am I have to drag myself from my bed and then after I've looked out of the window, I try to convince myself that going out at this ungodly hour is a good idea.

This morning when I looked out of the window there was a frost & some cloud on the horizon, it looked promising enough to get me up and after a cup of tea I felt quite enthusiastic.

I had hoped the frost (it was -1º) would bring some early morning mist as the sun rose, with that in mind I headed off to Cuddy's Crag.

I normally park in the 'Red Box' layby and follow the Pennine Way path up but it's just as easy to park at Housesteads, walk up the hill and veer left.

Quite a few of the ewe's have lambs, so I tried not to disturb them as I passed on my way up the hill.

It's a fair old climb and I allow myself 20 minutes to get to the viewpoint, half way up I'm huffing and puffing like a steam train and promising that I'm going to loose weight but eventually with stops and starts I get to the top.

I love this viewpoint, from Cuddy's Crag to Housesteads Crag and beyond, (NY783686 ) I've spent many mornings standing hoping for an eye popping sunrise, on occasion I've climbed up only to have thick fog envelope me, certainly every morning is different.

I notice the white bag of stones still hasn't been moved, it looks like a dead sheep and has been in the same place for over a year, I do wish someone would at least take the bag away!

As I stand waiting for the sun the dawn chorus starts, curlew, skylarks, pippits and the pheasants join the rooks to welcome the dawn, then a rooster starts waking the lambs up.

The mist doesn't come but there's a little bit of colour in the sky, a bit more scattered cloud would have been nice as the sun is coming up directly ahead of me today and soon it's too bright for photographs.

By 7am I'm heading back down the hill, I had expected to meet a few other photographers, it's the easter weekend and there are lots of visitors around, some of them must be photographers.

Must all be at Steel Rigg.

It turned out to be a wonderful day - not at all what was forecast, hope it lasts for tomorrow while people are off work.

Enjoy the break and catch you later.