Thursday 13th October
Fine and sunny. Experience has led us to the conclusion that in Cowan Bridge Thursday is the only day in the week that is likely to be fine and maybe sunny. All the rest are grey and overcast and either wet or cold and windy or on some occasions all three.
Friday 14th October
It was forecast that it would be fine but with low cloud so no point in going uphill. We decided to go for a walk at Elterwater. It is included in a little book that has been sponsored by Booths the supermarket that has stores throughout the north. We have done a few from this book and found that we have gotten lost every time, but the Elterwater sounded okay. However the instructions for this walk did it for me and if it had been my book it would be at the bottom of the bin by now. I totally lost it when we got lost yet again. But this time I was totally frustrated because we were in a National forest; a place which to me should have clearly marked trails and absolutely no sheep or cows and all their ****. After smashing around in a lot of this in what according to the book instructions was the trail, we returned the way we came and back to the road into Elterwater. We then proceeded on to what Brian calls a ‘nursing home’ walk i.e. one that has been constructed so that those with wheel chairs and push chairs can do a walk along the side of the lake. I don’t object to these, but what about catering to what surely must be the great majority of people who would enjoy walking on well marked paths without having to be gung ho purists who walk the fells full of self congratulation about their navigational skills! Bloody show-offs in my opinion!
Saturday 15th October
Anyway it did it for Brian as well. On Saturday the sun was shining from about 8.30 (on a normal day, it doesn’t get light until about 8.00 now and even later when it is raining) and when I suggested a fell walk to Brian he rejected it on the grounds that his shoes were too wet and that the ground will not have dried out. Consequently we enjoyed sitting in the lounge room in the sun reading the paper. Then we walked down to The Highwayman pub for a light lunch and back again – this time on the road. I did the washing and managed to get it all dry. The owners of the other two cottages were all here working in the garden and cleaning up the house. It reminded me of when I lived in London in the 1960s. Having gone through an English winter, a friend and I couldn’t be bothered going sightseeing when we got onto the continent – we had missed the sun so much during the winter that all we wanted to do was to sit and enjoy it. One of the chaps in the local shop said to me that it is amazing how a couple of days of sunshine can lift the spirits and I have to agree.
FOOD GLORIOUS FOOD AND OTHER THOUGHTS
Our visitors last week bought us lots food. Tim and Hazel bought us potatoes garlic and onions from their allotment, and Ann and Stephen apples, pears, tomatoes, peppers, grapes, pumpkins, homemade jams, honey, chutney and a damson and walnut cake. No wonder I am putting on weight! The amazing thing about Tim’s potatoes is that some of them are purple. Apparently you can get purple skinned potatoes, but Tim’s are purple right through. We had some of them baked when we roasted a chicken and they were delicious, but I can’t wait to have them mashed. Can you imagine how colourful the plate would look with purple mashed potatoes, green peas and some carrots? I wonder the cook designers haven’t been promoting them. They taste a bit like an orange sweet potato to me.
The apples and pears Stephen grew are heritage apples and we have had two or three apple and pear crumbles, as well as an apple and damson crumble with damsons from the trees in the garden.
SCENERY and WILDLIFE
The Lakes district is obviously one of the most scenic in Britain and it is in the County of Cumbria. When we did the walk to the top at Keswick, and looked down on Derwent water with its small islands, I could see the similarities between that scene below and the early artist drawings and paintings of Sydney harbour. My guess is that that is why the name of the County in which Sydney is placed is Cumberland. Will have to look it up when I get home (or have access to the internet).
Yesterday morning, (Saturday which was the lovely sunny day) I was watching three young rabbits chasing each other around the garden and thought about how people with imagination and drawing skills like Beatrix Potter could not help but write about what she saw from her farm. They appeared to be having so much fun, and are so cute and no wonder they are so popular in Britain. Shame they do so much damage to the land in Australia; there is a $30,000 fine if you are found with a pet rabbit in Queensland (or any rabbit for that matter except a dead one).
We also have a very cute wood mouse, according to Stephen. He is shy but does not appear to be too frightened of us. Brian saw him in the kitchen and about a week later I saw him emerge from the wood basket in the lounge room. He kept appearing when Stephen was lighting the fire and when we got near to the end of the wood in the basket, we could see the cosy little newspaper nest he had made at the bottom. Brian took the basket with the mouse in it into the garden and turned it upside down and the mouse ran into the wood shed. We thought that would be that. But the following night I saw him run across the stairs in the hallway and on Saturday when I was sitting in the lounge room could hear him rebuilding his nest in the bottom of the basket. Brian asked Sandra (who came to do some gardening yesterday) how far he has to remove the mouse so that he won’t come back again? He suggested Lancaster where Sandra lives. She laughed, but I’m not sure whether she would appreciate having the mouse in her house. (or as the Canadians would say ‘a moose in the hoose’).
17 October 2011
13 October 2011
A Local Walk in the Cloudy, Misty Fells
Saturday, 8 October
It was very misty today with some light rain so we decided that a local walk would be preferable to driving further afield as the bad weather appeared to be widespread.
We chose the AA.com walk “Leck Beck and Easegill Kirk” which we could intercept virtually on our doorstep. This was a 3 hour walk of some 12 km. We did not find the Easegill Kirk – not a church but rock formation created by the running water over many millions of years – mainly because the descent to the beck below appeared quite hazardous. Also, it was very misty and all the fells were not to be seen. Regardless of this we took off across the fell in the mist and eventually found the stone wall which we followed to the wall which led to Leck Farm. Again we were unable to locate any of the features on the fell because of the mist. Tim was having fun trying out the GPS feature on his new mobile phone; however, with the mist/rain on both his glasses and the screen he had limited success. The return on the sealed lane and across the lower fields was quite pleasant as the mist started to clear. On this particular night a warm fire and a hot meal were particularly welcome.
According to Tim, he does the same thing to Hazel as Brian does to me – walks ahead of her and apparently they also get lost quite often. She has decided that it is a Smith family trait. They of course would not admit that we were lost – but there was considerable discussion about whether we were on the right track, especially as the instructions said that we should go downhill, but the blokes knew that that was not going down too well with the women. So we headed up across the heather on the moor. It was very wet and muddy and Hazel’s and Brian’s feet were wet though. I told them that like most of our Aussie walking friends, Brian has now lost the confidence of most of his family in the UK when it comes to walking. Jean mentioned to me the walk we took her and Bill on in Norwich when Brian didn’t know where it ended, so maybe Hazel would go with him again on a dry day, I don’t think she would on a wet one. She was so relieved when we finally reached the road it completely transformed her. I know that when we were tramping our way across the heather on the moor, she would have preferred to have been back in the lounge room at Bronte cottages reading up on the rising of the middle class in Britain which is the topic for her first essay in her MA course which she has just commenced.
Sunday 9 October
Cloudy and wet. We had a stroll around Kirkby Lonsdale including a beer at a pub serving the ales from the local micro brewery in town. Afterwards we had lunch at Plato’s and then Tim and Hazel set off from the cottage bound for home in Peterborough.
This time it was my fault that Brian and Tim got lost and very very wet. I told them that they could turn right out of the pub and then left to get back to the car park where it was necessary to feed some more money into the parking machine so that we could extend our stay. (Parking in this area is really expensive). They followed my directions, but could not find a way through so had to back track in the pouring rain. Meanwhile Hazel and I were wondering what on earth had happened to them. I had to admit that I did miss lead them because we were further around the town than I thought we were.
Monday 9 – Wednesday 11 October
On the Monday we had a visit from Sandra and Malik (the owners of No 2 Bronte Cottages) who had just returned from their sun-laden holiday in southern Europe. I think we might revert in our next overseas holiday to locations closer to the equator.
They had a great time and Malik is mad about Provence – maybe they will end up with a property we could rent from them there?
Sandra had read the blog and bought some replacement wine glasses. However, they are the lovely red wine glasses which are so fine I was reluctant to use those in the first place so all of them are okay, and it was the smaller white ones that we broke. I did manage to find some nice ones in an Oxfam shop in Kendal – advised by Gillian to look for them there – and while there were five when I bought them only 4 made it home in tact, one having broken in the bag. Don’t know why because the man wrapped them separately in tissue paper, but obviously there was not enough of it.
Then at lunchtime Stephen and Ann arrived from South Wales. In the afternoon we had a visit to Kirkby Lonsdale to do some shopping and show Stephen and Ann around KL.
As with all our guests, I took them to see the view from just below the Church. This was painted in a famous painting by Turner after it had been described by Ruskin as being the “finest view in England and therefore in the whole world”. As Joan commented it is now marred by some awful pink and blue additions to a farm building in the foreground. And because of the horrible weather, our more recent visitors did not get to see the whole view – the hills which form the background being totally covered in cloud and rain and mist.
On the Tuesday we visited Hill Top Farm at Near Sawry. We learned that the film about Beatrix Potter had been set not at Hill Top but at Yew Tree farm near Coniston. Also, that the inside scenes were in sets replicating Hill Top constructed and located on the Isle of Man. Following this visit had lunch at Hawkshead and later had a retail therapy stop-over in Ambleside.
We also learned that once Beatrix had married, Hill top was not considered a suitable house for a woman of her wealth and status to live in, so a new 14 roomed house was built not far from Hill top and she could escape back to her beloved cottage and often did so, especially when she saw people she did not wish to spend time with coming to the new house. She came from an artistic family and examples of her father and mother’s drawings are on display in the cottage as well as painting of another of her relatives. When we left the cottage we walked down beside the garden and saw lots of rabbits and a few her favourite breed of sheep.
We then went to Hawkshead village where an outdoor clothing company has a very large shop. We had a browse and Ann bought a jacket. I had bought one the week before when I was in Ambleside while Brian was doing the Helvellyn walk, so I didn’t need one. Then we had fish and chips and sticky toffee pudding at the OAP (Old age pensioner) at the Queen’s Head Inn.
As a member of the National Trust Stephen went into the Gallery in the village which was originally the offices of Beatrix’s lawyer husband. Some of her original drawings are on display there, but Ann, Brian and I decided that it was too expensive and thought that the National Trust should give a larger discount to those who pay to visit Hilltop Cottage and then go to the Gallery – it was only 50p off meaning it would have cost nine pound 50 p to see both.
On Wednesday Stephen was anxious to get out on the fells so on examination of the map we found we could combine a visit to Dent with a walk back to Easegill Kirk and then back to the cottage. Consequently, we set off in the mist and light rain and lunched in Dent at the Sun Inn. Afterward, Mary and Ann dropped us men off at the start of the walk in Dentdale at Blind Beck Bridge. It was water and mud all the way but the mist did lift as we walked. This time we did actually locate Easgill Kirk where we actually crossed the dry beck and yet the water was surging down from Great Coum. Apparently this paradox is explained by the beck going underground and resurging further downstream. Stephen had been concerned that we would not have been able to cross the beck at any point because of the increased and rapid flow. In that case we had a contingency plane to return to the start at Dentdale and phone for our rescue. But all was well and we returned safely after a 3.5 hour walk over 12km with only wet and muddy shoes and socks to show for it.
Ann and I drove into Kendal – on the way passing lots of pheasants – apparently they sit on the fence i.e. a stone wall beside the river but there were lots of them in the fields close by as well. We went to an outlet shop – again mentioned to me by Gillian – and discovered that it was a Clarks’ shoes outlet. I was looking for some boots but couldn’t find any that I wanted, but Ann did get some nice black shoes which she will need after she has her hip replacement operation. She is in a lot of pain with it and it hoping that she will be able to have it before Christmas. We were going to have coffee in Kendal, but when we looked at the map decided against it because it was too far for Ann to walk, so we drove back and got home just before the men.
It was very misty today with some light rain so we decided that a local walk would be preferable to driving further afield as the bad weather appeared to be widespread.
We chose the AA.com walk “Leck Beck and Easegill Kirk” which we could intercept virtually on our doorstep. This was a 3 hour walk of some 12 km. We did not find the Easegill Kirk – not a church but rock formation created by the running water over many millions of years – mainly because the descent to the beck below appeared quite hazardous. Also, it was very misty and all the fells were not to be seen. Regardless of this we took off across the fell in the mist and eventually found the stone wall which we followed to the wall which led to Leck Farm. Again we were unable to locate any of the features on the fell because of the mist. Tim was having fun trying out the GPS feature on his new mobile phone; however, with the mist/rain on both his glasses and the screen he had limited success. The return on the sealed lane and across the lower fields was quite pleasant as the mist started to clear. On this particular night a warm fire and a hot meal were particularly welcome.
According to Tim, he does the same thing to Hazel as Brian does to me – walks ahead of her and apparently they also get lost quite often. She has decided that it is a Smith family trait. They of course would not admit that we were lost – but there was considerable discussion about whether we were on the right track, especially as the instructions said that we should go downhill, but the blokes knew that that was not going down too well with the women. So we headed up across the heather on the moor. It was very wet and muddy and Hazel’s and Brian’s feet were wet though. I told them that like most of our Aussie walking friends, Brian has now lost the confidence of most of his family in the UK when it comes to walking. Jean mentioned to me the walk we took her and Bill on in Norwich when Brian didn’t know where it ended, so maybe Hazel would go with him again on a dry day, I don’t think she would on a wet one. She was so relieved when we finally reached the road it completely transformed her. I know that when we were tramping our way across the heather on the moor, she would have preferred to have been back in the lounge room at Bronte cottages reading up on the rising of the middle class in Britain which is the topic for her first essay in her MA course which she has just commenced.
Sunday 9 October
Cloudy and wet. We had a stroll around Kirkby Lonsdale including a beer at a pub serving the ales from the local micro brewery in town. Afterwards we had lunch at Plato’s and then Tim and Hazel set off from the cottage bound for home in Peterborough.
This time it was my fault that Brian and Tim got lost and very very wet. I told them that they could turn right out of the pub and then left to get back to the car park where it was necessary to feed some more money into the parking machine so that we could extend our stay. (Parking in this area is really expensive). They followed my directions, but could not find a way through so had to back track in the pouring rain. Meanwhile Hazel and I were wondering what on earth had happened to them. I had to admit that I did miss lead them because we were further around the town than I thought we were.
Monday 9 – Wednesday 11 October
On the Monday we had a visit from Sandra and Malik (the owners of No 2 Bronte Cottages) who had just returned from their sun-laden holiday in southern Europe. I think we might revert in our next overseas holiday to locations closer to the equator.
They had a great time and Malik is mad about Provence – maybe they will end up with a property we could rent from them there?
Sandra had read the blog and bought some replacement wine glasses. However, they are the lovely red wine glasses which are so fine I was reluctant to use those in the first place so all of them are okay, and it was the smaller white ones that we broke. I did manage to find some nice ones in an Oxfam shop in Kendal – advised by Gillian to look for them there – and while there were five when I bought them only 4 made it home in tact, one having broken in the bag. Don’t know why because the man wrapped them separately in tissue paper, but obviously there was not enough of it.
Then at lunchtime Stephen and Ann arrived from South Wales. In the afternoon we had a visit to Kirkby Lonsdale to do some shopping and show Stephen and Ann around KL.
As with all our guests, I took them to see the view from just below the Church. This was painted in a famous painting by Turner after it had been described by Ruskin as being the “finest view in England and therefore in the whole world”. As Joan commented it is now marred by some awful pink and blue additions to a farm building in the foreground. And because of the horrible weather, our more recent visitors did not get to see the whole view – the hills which form the background being totally covered in cloud and rain and mist.
On the Tuesday we visited Hill Top Farm at Near Sawry. We learned that the film about Beatrix Potter had been set not at Hill Top but at Yew Tree farm near Coniston. Also, that the inside scenes were in sets replicating Hill Top constructed and located on the Isle of Man. Following this visit had lunch at Hawkshead and later had a retail therapy stop-over in Ambleside.
We also learned that once Beatrix had married, Hill top was not considered a suitable house for a woman of her wealth and status to live in, so a new 14 roomed house was built not far from Hill top and she could escape back to her beloved cottage and often did so, especially when she saw people she did not wish to spend time with coming to the new house. She came from an artistic family and examples of her father and mother’s drawings are on display in the cottage as well as painting of another of her relatives. When we left the cottage we walked down beside the garden and saw lots of rabbits and a few her favourite breed of sheep.
We then went to Hawkshead village where an outdoor clothing company has a very large shop. We had a browse and Ann bought a jacket. I had bought one the week before when I was in Ambleside while Brian was doing the Helvellyn walk, so I didn’t need one. Then we had fish and chips and sticky toffee pudding at the OAP (Old age pensioner) at the Queen’s Head Inn.
As a member of the National Trust Stephen went into the Gallery in the village which was originally the offices of Beatrix’s lawyer husband. Some of her original drawings are on display there, but Ann, Brian and I decided that it was too expensive and thought that the National Trust should give a larger discount to those who pay to visit Hilltop Cottage and then go to the Gallery – it was only 50p off meaning it would have cost nine pound 50 p to see both.
On Wednesday Stephen was anxious to get out on the fells so on examination of the map we found we could combine a visit to Dent with a walk back to Easegill Kirk and then back to the cottage. Consequently, we set off in the mist and light rain and lunched in Dent at the Sun Inn. Afterward, Mary and Ann dropped us men off at the start of the walk in Dentdale at Blind Beck Bridge. It was water and mud all the way but the mist did lift as we walked. This time we did actually locate Easgill Kirk where we actually crossed the dry beck and yet the water was surging down from Great Coum. Apparently this paradox is explained by the beck going underground and resurging further downstream. Stephen had been concerned that we would not have been able to cross the beck at any point because of the increased and rapid flow. In that case we had a contingency plane to return to the start at Dentdale and phone for our rescue. But all was well and we returned safely after a 3.5 hour walk over 12km with only wet and muddy shoes and socks to show for it.
Ann and I drove into Kendal – on the way passing lots of pheasants – apparently they sit on the fence i.e. a stone wall beside the river but there were lots of them in the fields close by as well. We went to an outlet shop – again mentioned to me by Gillian – and discovered that it was a Clarks’ shoes outlet. I was looking for some boots but couldn’t find any that I wanted, but Ann did get some nice black shoes which she will need after she has her hip replacement operation. She is in a lot of pain with it and it hoping that she will be able to have it before Christmas. We were going to have coffee in Kendal, but when we looked at the map decided against it because it was too far for Ann to walk, so we drove back and got home just before the men.
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