THE LAKE DISTRICT

I've spent the last week in the Lake District, in a little house overlooking Windermere, with my family. It's been a long time since we've been to the Lakes (it used to be something we did nearly every year) and it was lovely to be back, even without a few of the people who used to make up the family. Our house's front windows were five feet from the lake, and we had our own little jetty out on to the lake, which was great for my uncle as he'd brought the canoe he made - from scratch - with him. It's the most beautifully made thing, perfect on the water. They took it out a couple times a day, up to the mouth of the river to watch wild otters, one of which graced the front of our house occasionally too. Having rushed home from London via giving a tour of the new Photography gallery at the V&A for CreateVoice, I stupidly forgot my camera. I brought all of my filters, charger and associated bits but forgot the actual body. My mother (who also uses a Nikon) brought her camera, but forgot her memory card, so between us we had everything we needed but the card, and couldn't take pictures. I haven't been without my camera for more than a couple of days in years, and it was so frustrating to miss all these wonderful shots! However we got hold of a memory card towards the end of the week and I got a few hours shooting done at Wray Castle and on the lake. Luckily, my phone has a good camera on it (it's a Sony Xperia, which has a 12MP camera, which is the main reason I bought it) and so I managed to snap a few photos with that. It's just not the same once you're used to a dSLR though. It was a beautiful week despite my horrendous deadlines. It's nice to get out of the city occasionally. You can see more photos from the week on my Instagram, @heartsofsand.