Nearly there

Well the wet weather meant that we missed out on Christmas bookings because the decking couldn't be completed on time.

We are there now though, and it's just I's to be dotted and T's crossed. New Year will see our first guests.

Happy Christmas to all who are reading this - we hope you will visit in the New Year!

Rain and more rain

It seems that 7 inches of rain fell over Cumbria one night over the weekend - I think it was Sunday. It's still falling. Driving up to the new lodge to drop off some kit I went through dozens of huge puddles. I have never seen the roads so wet. I had inteneded to take some pictures for the web site, but unless we are hoping to attract ducks and frogs to the cabin, the ones I was able to take are pretty useless. Still here's one that shows the cabin finally on site.

Let's hope we get some crisp winter mornings over the Christmas break - that's when walking in the Lakes is a real pleasure. Nobody around and crystal clear air. Dream on!

High Winds and High Hopes

The weather this weekend has been severe. The winds have been as strong as anything we have experienced in the last two years and they have been driving the rain into every crevice, making it hard to stay dry. Rum and Hot Chocolate never seemed so inviting!

I saw a heron this morning - it was really struggling to make any headway against the wind and finally seemed to give up the attempt and landed, very ungainlily in the dog field.

The lodge is sitting near the river pool waiting to be moved to its final position. There was a slight delay due to roadworks which has stopped the other lodge being able to get up the A491 (they can't site ours until the other one is in place), but the roadworks are now over.

Limefitt have told us that we should be up and running for the week before Christmas, so we are busy confirming those bookings that we have already taken.

It's interesting that some people seem to enquire without even visiting the web site! We are listed on www.lakedistrict.com and I get the impression that people who visit there just seem to fire off a whole load of enquiries. The enquiries that matter (i.e. those who actually book) seem to come from people who are a bit more discriminating in their searching. I suppose that that makes sense.


Anyway - we are nearly ready to go so watch this space!

November

Radio 4 had a good programme on today - they started with the very pessimistic poem "November" by Thomas Hood

November - By Thomas Hood (1799-1845)

No sun - no moon!
No morn - no noon -
No dawn - no dusk - no proper time of day.
No warmth, no cheerfulness, no healthful ease,
No comfortable feel in any member -
No shade, no shine, no butterflies, no bees,
No fruits, no flowers, no leaves, no birds! -
November!

They then did some outside broadcasts from various parts of the Lake District, showing how much colour was around (even if they did resort to red squirrels at one point ;-)

Even without the summer weather the scenery is still magnificent round here, and a crisp blue sky over the fells has to be one of the best sights you'll get during the short days of Winter.

They also discussed the old Norse derivation of many of the words like beck, fell, brant (as in Brantwood) and told of how a Norwegian girl could understand some of the local dialect.

If you missed it you can catch it on listen again today.

At last!

The lodge is now on site - we are just waiting for one other lodge to be sited before Windermere Lodge is finally put into position.

Once it is on site then it is just a matter of fitting out the final touches and making sure that the landscaping is completed, and then we are open for guests. We have managed to get Limefitt Park to agree that guests can use the facilities at White Cross - so thank you Limefitt!

It has taken a while to get here and we are really excited - especially as we have 2 bookings already and we don't even have photos of the lodge on the web site yet!


The web site is taking about 20 hits a day, and we hope that once we can show how lovely the lodge is that these will soon convert into more firm bookings.

The cold brings out the birds again

It's getting colder again and the bird nuts don't last long these days. The woodpecker appeared briefly on the feeder today before he got scared off by our attention. He is always a welcome sight even if he is surprisingly ungainly compared to some of the other visitors.

Hawkshead for a bonfire

The Mortal Man decided to hold their bonfire on Sunday. OK - this was the 5th so it was more authentic, but it was a shame as we could not stay in the lakes to enjoy it. Instead, on a perfect moonlit night we went round to Hawkshead where there was a public bonfire and firework display. Wow! This was the best display I have ever seen - or should I say displays as there were two lengthy displays - both really excellent. The nicest part though was that instead of charging a fixed entrance fee they just collected in a bucket, and then did the same as you queued for the food (also no fixed charge). The Romanian vegetable soup (whatever was in it - well OK probably vegetables) was really tasty, so a big thumbs up to whovere made it!

The money collected this year goes towards next year's display - Really civilised and friendly that! (and also quite unusual).

We were a bit concerned for the guy in the tractor who kept moving bits of the bonfire to make it burn better (obviously vying to become the GUY in the tractor).

A fantastic evening though - many thanks to all those who organised it

Solitary Walking

Last week gave us some varied weather.

On Saturday I took advantage of a break in the rain to take Suki for a walk half way up Applethwaite Fell and along to the road. The views of Windermere were spectacular as the sun pierced the clouds and a rainbow framed the fells. (Note to self - take the camera next time!). What I really enjoyed though was the unusual experience of walking on my own, at my own pace with my own thoughts. It's a very different experience from walking with a group or with family. It's interesting that Wordsworth was wandering "lonely as a cloud" in "Daffodils". Your thoughts can just bear off wherever you want to let them and you notice all sorts of things that you don't have time to see whilst you are talking or making sure that children are keeping out of mischief.

How many different colours of rowan berry there are - some as deep red as blood and some as pale as your skin. How late the blackberries are still in fruit this year. How many rills there are falling down the fells. How quiet it is, even during half term and so close to Windermere.

I was enjoying it so much that I turned left on the road and walked up to the top path and returned along past Dubbs Reservoir where half a dozen swans were gliding silently along on the glassy water. Suki, being a water lover, had the time of her life chasing through the deep puddles that seemed to cover most of the top level path and which I had to negotiate with a little more care for fear of getting my feet soaked.

Coming down the path to Limefitt I had a beautiful view of Troutbeck in low cloud. The landscape seems to display a different facet in every different type of weather or light, and unlike some places it doesn't seem to becomes depressing in bad weather. I remember being in Greece and really hating the rain, whereas here is just seems to be a natural and beautiful part of what happens.

The nuthatches are back

The birds seem to have ignored the peanut feeder during the recent warm weather, but the nuthatches have made a welcome return. There was an article in the paper last week that described them as "Autumn's Highwaymen" - largely due to the Lone Ranger type "mask" that they have across their eyes. They take the best nuts and profligately chuck the rest onto the ground where the robins and sparrows hoover them up. It is always interesting to see them - with their unusual confederate blue grey plumage with their orange chests and the way that they can flit both up and down the feeder unlike any other birds we see. They are obviously first in the pecking order - as soon as they appear the other birds fly for the safety of the tree. The only ones that sometimes stand their ground are the green finches. They too are bigger than most birds that come to the feeder.

An osprey!

Sitting on our deck in the late afternoon I looked up and saw a large gull circling. It began to ride the thermals and I got the binoculars as I thought this was a bit "un-gull-like". The bird was larger than I had first realised and had a greyish white underside with black tips on its wings. I watched it until it got so high that I couldn't see it clearly even with full zoom on the binoculars. Looking in my bird book it could only have been an osprey, and this was confirmed by the RSPB page

Seen in flight from below the osprey has white or slightly mottled underparts. The long wings are angled, bending at the 'wrist' which has a black patch contrasting with the white wing linings, and at a distance it could be mistaken for a large gull. This spectacular fish-eating bird of prey is an Amber List species because of its historical decline (due to persecution), and low breeding numbers.

I wonder if this was one of the Bassenthwaite ospreys? http://www.ospreywatch.co.uk/index.htm

An autumn day above Ullswater

Sunday was a perfect Autumn day in Troutbeck, so we packed a picnic and bundled various kids and dogs into the cars and headed for Pooley Bridge an the North end of Ullswater. We parked by the bridge in the pay and display and walked up Heughscar to the stone circles. We picnicked by the cairn from where we had a fantastic view of Ullswater with all of the yachts darting to and fro. Halfway through lunch we were amazed to see a pack of hounds fly past on their own. Apparently they were hound trailing - this was the first time I had ever heard of this

From the web site http://www.trailhoundtrust.co.uk/faq.htm I found out that

"Hound trailing is a sport which takes place all over the Lake District between April and October. It dates back over 200 years. Individual owners get their hounds fit, then take them to race meetings, which are held most days throughout the summer. The hounds run a circular route of 10 miles (5 miles for 1st season puppies), over field and fell, following a strong aniseed and paraffin scent. "

(By the way - you can adopt a retired trail hound from this site.)

Walking on to the stone circles and High Street (the old Roman road) we made up ghoulish stories of human sacrifice to scare the kids (but with no real success).

Coming back down to Pooley Bridge via the limestone scar we had a view down the entire length of Ullswater - stunning!

One small person described this as "the best walk we have done so far". High praise indeed!