So long blogspot!

We've moved!

We decided to put the blog on our own site so you can find us here now

http://windermerelodge.co.uk/wp/

We do get sun as well of course!

Just to prove that the weather in the Lakes can be as glorious as anywhere else here's what it was like on the first weekend of November this year!

We discovered a new walk round Troutbeck that took us to place where there is an island between 2 bridges. Even after 3 years this place still surprises me with it's beauty!

More rainbows

The last few days have been a bit wet - we got a foot of rain in a single day, and we had to drive here using a very indirect route yesterday, so it was good to see a beautiful consequence of it all! This was the most striking rainbow I have ever seen!

It's not the winning...

So last night was the North West Tourism awards. We went down to Liverpool where the awards took place in the magnificent St George's Hall.


Sadly for us the Tourism Web Site of The Year for the North West Award didn't come our way - It went instead to The Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester. We were just flattered to be competing in such exalted company and we had an ace time.

As the sign post in the picture below sums up - I hope we came close!


The awards were presented by Laurence Llewellyn-Bowen so Linda and Liz were very miffed not to have the chance of going up for a kiss, but everything was alright again when he appeared next to us during the buffet. He really seems a nice guy and he was just soooo charming when they asked if he'd mind having his picture taken with them. It must be a right pain and he was extremely gracious about it.


Liz and Gary who had come with us to lend support were made up when the evening's entertainment started and it was some bloke called Rhydian from the X -factor. They were even happier when they realised that we didn't have a clue who he was (we must be the only people in the country who don't watch it) so they could take the mickey again. He was really good though and he had the perfect setting for his Phantom of the Opera song as you can see below!


All in all we had a great run and we are really proud to have won the Cumbria Award that got us here. And well done M.O.S.I - A worthy winner!

We've had such a lot of fun that maybe we'll try again another year!

Crisis what Crisis

We decided to celebrate the opening of Kingfisher Lodge by going out with our friends Julie and Karen (Check out J&K's Jikiden Reiki site) into Bowness on Saturday night for an Italian meal at Villa Positano on Ash Street - 015394 45663 .

Even though it's hardly peak season just now we weren't able to book a table for Saturday night until 8:45! When we arrived the place was heaving and the staff were coping heroically with a huge number of people. It's a nice place and we had a great evening. No sign of the economic downturn in this restaurant.

We got up this morning and did a quick Dubbs Reservoir 5 miler to make up for the extra garlic bread. There are still a suprising number of flowers out - red campion and cornflowers especially, and the berries and hips keep the trees colourful. We made it before the promised gales put in an appearance.

Back home shortly and then to Liverpool on Wednesday for the finals of the North West Tourism Awards. The other web sites we are up against are all really high quality - so we are a really just going for craic (OK - with a sneaky hope that something amazing could happen). It should be a great evening anyway.

And talking of lovely :-)

We were really pleased to receive some pictures of Windermere Lodge from some recent guests. We got two lovely drawings and four amazing photos.

Here is one of the drawings - you can see why we were very touched!

So sweet to be starting off together :-)

So there we are in Mr Leahy's vast emporium, otherwise known as Tesco Blackpool, buying hundreds of pounds worth of new gear for Kingfisher Lodge. As we check out the lady at the till smiles at Linda and says "it's so nice to start with everything NEW isn't it". Linda catches my eye and simpers at me. "Well we only do it once darling, don't we?". I decide this is not the moment to explain about holiday homes and inventories so simper back "Hopefully sweetheart!"

To continue the romantic mood here is a sunset picture taken at Limefitt Park this weekend

Oops we did it again!

We are really pleased to tell you that we now have ANOTHER lodge that we can offer you.



We are so pleased with the success of Windermere Lodge that last weekend we bought another lodge to be able to offer a different style for our guests.

Kingfisher Lodge is a traditional style 2 bedroom pine lodge and is right beside Trout Beck. We look forward to welcoming new and returning guests! We hope to be welcoming our first guests from 17th October.

In the meantime we are working flat out to make sure that it is as well equipped as Windermere Lodge.

We were really lucky that we did all the business side of the purchase on Saturday when about 2 years worth of rain fell in half an hour. The road to the Kirkstone Pass from Windermere was blocked by a flood and we had to use local knowledge to get past the flood on the side roads. (A sat-nav might have done the same job of course).

When we came to start shifting car loads of stuff it was Sunday and the sun was shining as brightly as it has all year.

We took that as a good omen!

Britain's Favourite View

Well, this weekend has been a pleasant change. Saturday afternoon was glorious and Saturday evening was a crystal clear night with stars everywhere and a nearly full moon. Having stayed in and watched a scary DVD (28 Weeks Later - ace) we took Suki out for a late night walk. At this point I need to apologise to the guy who had set up his video camera and laid out bread and other delights to attract the badger which he had just started to film as we walked past. Oops. He didn't say anything - just went inside looking pained. If you are reading this, then we are very very sorry! :-)

This morning (Sunday) we crossed the Wrynose and Hardknott passes to visit Wastwater, which that nice Sally Whittaker from Corrie chose as her (winning) entry in "Britain's Favourite View".

Now Sally and I have history - I remember Sally (the character) meeting Kevin playing tennis back in the late 70's and I shaved my 'tache off (unkowingly) on the same night that Kevin shaved his off. (OK, I knew I'd shaved mine off but I don't know HE had). Sally (the actress) and I also used to go the same gym in Hale (although I never actually saw her there as men and women had separate sessions, and I hardly ever went anyway).

Anyway I wanted to see if I agreed with her choice.

We drove over the Wrynose and Hardknott passes which is real macho driving stuff. Your passengers enjoy the dramatic scenery whilst you grip the wheel with both hands. You ought to experience this at least once (and possibly at most once)

Arriving at Nether Wasdale we had lunch at The Screes.


We had a really tasty butternut squash and thyme soup with a pint of Black Sheep, before making our way down to the lake. I was really impressed that even though we were there early and the pub didn't officially start serving food until 12, they still served us at about 11.40.

"I'll just put it on for you now - no problem" is how is SHOULD be, but so very often isn't!

Down at the lake we took the obligatory photos, although it was rather cloudy still. They looka bit "moody". If you want to see some more Summery looking ones go to our friend Ronnie Mullins' excellent site

On the way home we took the rather less suicidal Birker Pass through Ulpha and got home in the same time as we went - about an hour and a half each way for a little over 40 miles each way!

On the way we saw some more amazing scenery that had us asking "how on earth do you choose a favourite view out of all this?". I suppose that Wastwater wins because it has a beautiful lake framed by stunning fellsides. like Great Gable, but some of the other views we saw today were just as lovely if not so dramatic.

This Summer is going swimmingly

Well it's not been too dry of late has it?

The good thing about the Lakes though is that there's always plenty to do even when it's raining.

Last weekend we had a fantastic time at Troutbeck Pool where they have an inflatables session on Saturday afternoons. Great fun for grown ups as well as kids.

We then dodged the showers to go on a waterfall walk. The fell sides are covered in small streams as a result of all the rain and the waterfalls are at their best.

Here's one of our favourites about 10 minutes walk from the lodge.

Walking down the mossy bank beside the falls was just like stepping on a sponge!

Of course all this water has to go somewhere so the beck that flows through the park has been at the highest level I have seen it for about 4 years. In high summer this is just a trickle!

Here#s what it looks like normally:

Baboons and Apes

On Monday this week a group of us (5 adults and 4 kids) went off to Grizedale to "Go Ape". The grown ups had been before but this was the first time for the kids who have all turned 10 (the minimum age now). We had a fantastic day and the kids surprised us by being right on top of the safety stuff and not getting it wrong even once. In fact it was ME that got told off by Big Mathew for not having my carabiners opposed (opposite sides for the closures) on one run. The weather was beautiful - clear blue skies and not too hot.


All of the staff at Go Ape were absolutely fantastic - especially Claire (Thanks Claire!) - they must pick them for having great personalities and a can-do attitude. This really is how family entertainment ought to be!

If you are going to do this yourself then it might be advisable to wear some insect repellent though. We use Avon "Skin so Soft" spray (which is allegedly also used by those rufty tufty boys in the SAS), but we forgot to take it with us and got a few bites as a result.


The whole thing took us about 3 and a half hours and we did a dash to Booths to pick up what was left of the bread and barbeque stuff and headed back to Limefitt for a barbie.

The stars on Monday night were spectacular as there was no moon and a totally clear sky - you could see the Milky Way and we saw satellites and shooting stars.

Messing about in boats

Windermere Airshow took place over the weekend so on a baking hot Sunday Afternoon we hired a boat from Shepherds and floated down the lake for the afternoon. The Red Arrows weren't there this year but the Yakovlevs made up for them.


We also saw the RAF Falcons display team from the boat.


Coming back up the lake we got this lovely view of the Troutbeck Valley.


A great day out all round.

A pair of mink coats

Today I heard a commotion on the beck - lots of splashing and squeaking. It turned out to be 2 mink. I'm not sure whether they were fighting or playing but they chased each other up out of the water and along the bank. I just managed to get them in the corner of this hastily snapped photo.


They seem to be American mink - some of the very few Americans I have seen in the Lakes recently :-)

It's been a good day for visitors - we've had the red squirrel again and the woodpecker and the nuthatch. I've been sitting very still working on my computer so maybe that's why I've seen so much. The golden rule is always "let Nature come to you" isn't it?

My new friend

I was really pleased to see that my encounter with our red squirrel was not just a one off. Today I have been feeding him/her peanuts from a distance of about 4 feet!

Here he is in the pine tree near the lodge. He seems very unfazed by my presence near him.

The best time of day

Taking the chance to do some work up here I was delighted to be woken up at 5:30 a.m. by the dog. My mood improved when I looked out of the window and saw a cloudless sky. I decided on a pre-breakfast walk and went up past Dubbs for a couple of hours.

It was amazingly quiet. you have to remember to stop so you can hear the silence - the trudging noise of your own boots is the noisiest thing around! The meadowsweet along the hedgerows have a really heady scent and were attracting clouds of bees. They reminded me that it's time to revisit Holehird gardens to see the astilbe (the cultivated versions of these) in full bloom.


It's always rewarding to keep your eyes open down the sides of the path. Today I had an extra early breakfast of wild raspberries!


I'm not sure if the raspberries are native plants, but in any event the walk was a feast for the senses and set me up for a day loosely connected to the world of work.

Coniston Country Fair

Sunday saw us at the Coniston Country Fair. This is always a great day out and given the recent rain the organisers must be thanking their lucky stars as there was only a brief shower or two during the afternoon.

It was quite windy though and the rescue helicopter that was to have landed in next to the hall had to abort the landing shown here and find a field a little further away.


Tom had a great afternoon buying tricks from the joke stalls, climbing on the climbing wall and learning tricks with a diabolo at the circus skills stall.