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