Hot hot hot July 19, 2006

Today could be the hottest day ever in the history of the Lake District. Hotter than on any day when man started carving his axeheads up Langdale. Hotter than on any day when King Arthur roamed around Arthuret and the River Eden, near Carlisle. Hotter than any day when Bosnian-Croatian Roman Centurions left Hardknott Fort for the bath-house siutated outside its walls. Hotter than any day on which Wordsworth or any poet ever strolls lonely or otherwise. Hotter than any day that gave Melvyn Bragg the idea for a seduction in one of his novels set near Wigtown on the Northern fells. I’ve gone out photographing heat rising on this ‘hottest day ever’. Just an ordinary hot day, relatively unexpected and unannounced.