Each year a group of my friends spends a long weekend in a bunk barn (actually an old converted chapel) in the Lake District. It’s owned by a charity that takes inner city teenagers out into the countryside to broaden their horizons and introduce them to nature.

We go there to lend a hand and do the place up. We’ve dug drainage ditches, redecorated inside, and done some minor maintenance on the roof. The last time we visited though we needed to repair the dry stone walls around the property.

That’s just one wall, and there’s quite a bit to do. We’re all novices, but fortunately my friend Mike is an experienced dry-stone-waller.

He showed us how to do it, and by the time we finished after two days, it didn’t look too bad (but nothing a professional would be proud of).

Which meant it was time to head out for a walk…

At Moss Eccles Tarn, a favourite with Beatrix Potter apparently…

…two of my friends couldn’t resist a dip…

…on this occasion I was recovering from being ill, so somehow managed to resist the lure of the icy water. Otherwise I’d have jumped in. Honest. No, really. Straight up. Well. Maybe.

On the way back we saw another rainbow in the distance. I experimented by photographing it through the lenses of a friend’s polarising sunglasses…

Originally published at www.steveparks.co.uk.