Of storms, stars and woodpeckers

This weekend has seen some very unseasonal weather . As I am typing this we have 65 MPH winds battering our lodge and the persistent and heavy rain has turned the beck from Friday's tinkling brook into a raging topic which is four feet deep.

In spite of that it's been a lovely weekend for us - on Friday we had Visit Britain around to do our first ever quality assessment. We were really pleased to be (as far as we know) only the second lodge at Limefitt to be awarded 4 stars!

The weather on Friday was lovely so we had dinner out on the deck and a celebratory bottle of fizzy.

Te weather started to turn on Saturday, and today it has become decidedly unfriendly. The noise woke me up early and sitting in the lounge at 6 in the morning watching the bird feeders I saw two woodpeckers at the same time. I have never seen this before, and it was only when I saw them retreat a few feet into the pine tree and watched one feeding the other that I realised that it must have been a mother and a juvenile being taught what to do. I couldn't get a picture of them together but here is the mother on the feeder



As I'm typing this now we've just seen the young woodpecker on the decking picking up stray bits of seed. I've never seen a woodpecker do that before.

On the window feeder we also had almost constant visits from a young nuthatch


As well as these birds (which I have to say are my favourites because we don't see them so often) we have also seen green finches, chaffinches, gold finches, bull finches, blue tits, great tits, robins, rooks, magpies and of course squirrels.

One of our feeders has totally disappeared, due, I think, to a double act from the rooks who were swinging on the feeders and making them fall off the hook, and two squirrels who had been hanging round and pinching nuts all day, and probably made off with the feeder when the rooks had done their bit.

Disconnected Holiday

I was reading last week about the fact that with mobile phones, laptops and Blackberries, the idea of being disconnected when you are away from the office is fast disappearing.

Coincidentally on Thursday I left my mobile on London, and Vodafone had a transmitter down in the lakes so there was no 2g or 3g connectivity.

Hmm - no mobile and no laptop for the entire weekend!

Once I had got over the initial withdrawal symptoms and had run out of walls to climb, I found myself relaxing far more than I usually do and, though I blush to admit it, Tom picked up on it immediately and said - "I like it when you don't have your computer with you Dad!"

We had a great time catching fish in nets, in the heat of a perfect summer day with the mayfly dancing on the surface of the water and the small fry mouthing at them (the trout that is - not the kids).

Tom caught 15 to my 0!

Here are some of them in a clear bucket. It's fun being a kid again for a while!

Holehird Gardens

A more gentle day on Saturday (after a Friday night entertaining Liz, Garry and their children Hendricks and Stella) took us to Holehird Gardens for the first time – we had read in the guest book that recent visitors had enjoyed it so we decided to give it a try. We were astounded that we had never discovered this jewel ourselves before.

It is an outstandingly beautiful place with lovely gardens and views of Windermere and the Coniston and Langdale Fells.

This is a must visit place if you are in the area and like plants, flowers or gardens.

Four Peaks

In search of something altogether more challenging we decided to head out from Limefitt down the Troutbeck Valley past the Tongue and up the side of the fells up to the old Roman Road of High Street near Mardale Ill Bell. For those of you who have ever wondered where Trout beck starts, here it is.

We made it to the top (a climb of about 2,000 feet from the park) just as the cloud settled on the peak so the astounding views were not quite what we expected.

However the skylarks that entertained us by soaring up and falling away, singing all the while made up for it.

As we carried on over the tops of Froswick, Ill Bell and Yoke the cloud lifted a little and we saw the panoramic views that make this sort of walk worth while.

You can see Limefitt Park at the bottom of the valley between the ridge on the right of the picture and Windermere

A midweek walk through the Langdale valley.

We started off with the intention of walking from Dungeon Ghyll but we left it a little late and the car parks were heaving.

We drove back to Elterwater, pictured above, and parked outside the village and did a 6 mile circuit that took us on a low level ramble around some of the Lake District’s most beautiful scenery.

The walk finished by taking us along the River Brathay down the side of Elterwater

The final part of the walk down a section of the Cumbrian Way was quite busy, in marked contrast to the walks we do from the lodge, but I suppose that with views like these and an easy path this was not surprising.