Monday turned into a pleasant spring like day and I finally cast off the long sleeve jumpers in favour of something spring like.  One cottage out and one back in and one cleaner up.  Guests arrived about 3pm, they have been before, after which I spent some time with my plants.  A busy evening for emails and phone calls and some bookings too.  Woke up to blue sky on Tuesday at our peak district cottages and decided to go for a walk.  We had heard that water was flowing over the Derwent dam so we set off for the reservoir with a walk in mind.  As it was during the week parking was not a problem.  We walked down to the dam but were disappointed that there was no water flowing over but one thing we did notice was that the reservoir levels were a lot higher than we have seen for a long time.  I got my camera out to take a picture of the dam and the next thing I knew a Hercules plane flew over.  Chris didn’t turn his camera on in time to get a good picture.  From here we walked along the lane to Wellhead where we took the track up to Lanehead  getting some nice views back to Ladybower reservoir on the way.  It felt really warm and it was strange to be walking in a t shirt when a few days ago I was still in layers!  The dogs were on their leads much to their dismay as it is nesting time for ground nesting birds and we came across some red grouse popping up out of the heather with their strange calls as well as a lapwing.  We picked up the path across Pike Low heading for Abbey Bank.  Found a nice spot for lunch with lovely views of the reservoirs.  From here the path meandered down past the ruined Bamford House to the top end of Derwent Reservoir.  We could see water coming over Howden dam.  Picked up the track back to the car park and let the dogs off their leads for a while and as we approached the Derwent dam we could see how near to the top the water was.  It had been a lovely walk hardly seeing many other walkers and cyclists and a quiet evening in.  Much warmer than expected with more warm weather to follow.  On the way back we stopped to see if water was flowing over the sink hole at Ladybower but it wasn’t.  We then called at Chatsworth House and having bought an ice cream we went and had a look at the crocheted lions. Fascinating.  Enjoy all the photos.