I live at Burnbanks, built in the 1930s for the workers on the Haweswater dam and now rebuilt as a little community of 18 houses set around a village green.

It is a beautiful place, with the ancient Naddle forest covering the lower part of the hills, but not as isolated as one would imagine, for all the many walkers doing the Coast to Coast path come past our front door.

It is a hard walk from Patterdale over the tops to Haweswater, and this year many of the walkers arrived here wet and cold from the heavy rain.

There is a real camaraderie among walkers and a willingness to help each other. One man slowed to accompany two American ladies who had not appreciated that the Lake District Hills can be quite challenging. He even carried one of their ruck-sacks as well as his own.

His action reminded me of the parable of the good Samaritan and also of the teaching of Jesus in Matthew Chapter 5 about going the extra mile.

It’s easy to despair about the inequalities, the materialism and the greed in our contemporary society. We and the media delight in judging others, describing them as benefit scroungers or greedy bankers without knowing all the facts.

But the walkers of many nationalities who pass our door, as well as the volunteers at the Olympic Games, remind me of a different side of human nature, the willingness of many to take time and trouble to help strangers.

As Christians we perhaps need to appreciate the goodness in God’s world more and spend less time bemoaning the evil.

Diana Nicholson, Bampton Church