Across Grange Fell to Watendlath

August 26, 1967

Continuing our walk in the English Lake District, we are looking over the Borrowdale Valley from above the Grange Fell. Below us we see the Derwent River and the highway winding through the valley.

We walked in the rain across the Fell to a small cluster of houses named Watendlath. It was featured in a novel called "Rogue Herries" by Hugh Walpole as well as some other works of Walpole.

Mollie had apparently read "Rogue Herries" and was familiar with other writings of Walpole. They had been here many times and the Lake District was their favorite spot for "holiday".

Brenda and Mollie check out a stone bridge at Watendlath.

Mollie and Marjorie could also fill us in on the plant life. As we walked across the wet fell, we found this foxglove plant, dripping from the rainfall. It is the plant from which the heart-active drug digitalis was isolated. I was lucky to get this shot in the low light, shooting at f2 at 1/25 sec with a +3 closeup lens on.

I had never seen a toadstool as red as this one. Someone later told me that it was extremely poisonous, so I am glad I didn't take a bite of it, or even handle it.

Even in the rain and low light, Rod was keen on taking some closeups of the plants. There were a lot of mushrooms and other wet weather plants among the bracken. Rod had just gotten a single-lens reflex camera so that closeups were feasible, so he was continuing to experiment.