The Famous Five and Grasmere.

Perhaps it’s my childhood diet of ‘The Famous Five’ that has led to our family romps around the countryside in search of adventure. Half term saw us exploring Grasmere in the Lake District with some friends.

We had an enormous picnic by Easdale Tarn. Ridiculous amounts of food and fresh air – we were just like the Famous Five, minus the lashings of ginger beer as the children don’t like it. The scenery was fabuous.

On the way back the children found a pool at the base of a waterfall and stripped down to their underwear for a swim.

I sat on a rock feeling nostalgic, not for my childhood I realised – I don’t remember ever stripping off and swimming at the base of a waterfall – but for the parallel childhood that I inhabited in my imagination, a childhood in which there were daring adventures to be had.

People hiking on the path above the waterfall paused to wave and smile at the children. It was one of those afternoons that you want to fix in memory so that it can be revisited and enjoyed again and again.