Did it rain on Saturday? Well yes, Crow park was no place for ordinary footwear. But I am hugely grateful for the audience you braved the conditions and shared my hour in the Adventure Theatre. Afterwards I got a chance to chat with Daniel Neilson acting editor of The Great Outdoors and introduced him to an advanced copy of The Far Eastern Fells. It may be the last of the eight, but I think its come out really well. Here I am with Dan a lovely chap with great enthusiasm for the outdoors. I also met Julian Elliott who had used fellranger to locate interesting subjects for his photography. If you visit his website you'll grasp that he is no ordinary cameraman, mixing French and British landscapes, they are stupendously beautiful www.ethereal-light.com

I have prepared this new website to exhibit, and hopefully sell, specially prepared LINESCAPE drawings on fine art paper as mounted, signed and numbered prints. This is now online and shows some of my recent work and includes a blog, sketchbook of past work and my artistic influences down the years. It also acts as a lead in to the advent of my linescapes featuring in the back of LAKELAND WALKER magazine, as from the July issue. All feedback will be much appreciated. I would like to think the drawings lead to nurturing an interest in drawing the landscapes that inspire you too.

There is always a genuine pleasure when someone gives a simple, honest review of one of one's guides. This is very much the case with WALK magazine to my seventh title in the Lakeland Fellranger series The Northern Fells, published in 2012.

"The penultimate of Mark’s eight walking guides to the Lake District’s fells sees him exploring routes to the north of Keswick. It’s another lavishly illustrated, colourful softback guide packed with information on routes up the likes of Bannerdale Crags, Binsey, Latrigg and Ullock Pike, not to mention Skiddaw and Blencathra. Since each fell is dissected path by path, there are routes for all ages and abilities – each lovingly and carefully described."

Accompanying photo features Bakestall and th Dash Valley from Brockle Crags on Great Cockup