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.

Better Red than Dead!

Today we saw a new visitor to our window feeder - a red squirrel!



The reds are so much more graceful than the greys and this one seemed quite capable of eating the odd peanut without having to destroy the bird feeder in the process like his grey cousins do.

We reported the sighting to Save Our Squirrels as the reds are really fighting for survival now.

In the hope that he (or she - how do you sex a squirrel?) comes back we decided to give him a name.

I tried to suggest Rufus (red and he comes over the roof to us) or Eric (the Red ) but Thomas was not interested in history or bad puns and insists that our new friend is called Bob.

As we don't know whether he's a boy or she's a girl then those of you who may remember the Elizabethan episodes of Blackadder will remember why it's not such a bad choice.

Dancing in the moonlight

Taking the dog for a late night walk at the weekend I heard some noise by one of the lodges. I looked up and saw 4 young badgers trying to get the nuts out of a low feeder.

I have always known that there are badgers on the site. The campers often make the mistake of leaving sausages and bacon outside their tents to keep cool, which the local badgers came to accept as kind of natural larder.

I have frequently seen the signs of their presence, normally grass uprooted in their hunt for worms - the mess they made of the recently laid turf was a sight to see!

This, though, was the first time I have ever seen them myself. They were totally unfazed us, and played on for a couple of minutes before they finally noticed us and decided to move on.

There is a big debate about a mass cull of badgers. Whilst I sympathise with farmers dealing with bovine TB I'm with the RSPCA on this one. (Ignorant townie that I am)

"Badgers are not the main source of TB in cattle," said Colin Booty, senior scientific officer of the RSPCA, which is resolutely opposed to culling.

"The trial results show that killing large numbers of badgers - most of which are disease-free - may even make the disease situation in cattle worse. Such a policy would clearly not be sustainable."

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.

Doves

In the evening we went out for dinner with friends. We met up at the Villa Columbina next to Dove Cottage (well it IS Dove Cottage if you are 2000 years old :-)

It was our first time at this Italian restaurant and I was extremely impressed. We got excellent Italian food at reasonable prices and service that was absolutely immaculate.

Children are made more than welcome – they are treated like adults and this seriously impressed 10 year old TT. They also get child sized portions of main dishes if they want and doggy bags too. It was a 20 mile round trip, but well worth it to find a restaurant where they have such a complete but apparently natural understanding of what represents excellent customer service and value for money for families.

We’ll be back!

Ospreys

On Wednesday we went up to Keswick to see the ospreys at Bassenthwaite. Last year they nested across the lake from the viewing area, but this year they’ve moved house and you can get a lot closer. We just missed seeing the male bringing in a fish, but shortly after we saw Mrs No Ring flying and her mate took to the skies again shortly afterwards. It was quite simply magical. These birds are just so majestic that even a glimpse is worth the wait. Unfortunately there is as yet no camera on the nest, and although the foliage around has been cut, you can only get a glimpse when they are sitting.

Bank Holiday Blues

But for us in the Lakes it was the sky and not our mood! The North had a great weekend for weather (although looking at the BBC weather bulletins you’d never have know as they seem fixated by the weather South of Birmingham!)

A Bewildered Bride

So last week I was up at the lodge doing some work that needed a bit of seclusion.

I woke up early and took the dog for a walk up around Dubbs reservoir on a clean crisp late spring morning. It was so quiet when I stopped walking and stood fro a moment – all I could hear was the noise of the birds and the sheep. The sheep are SO LOUD. I never thought I’d write that but everything is relative and the sheep were by far the noisiest things around.

Halfway along the path I came across a wagon full of nettles – so odd that it needed a photograph!



And all along the walk there were the hawthorns, decked with may blossom. One blown over by the wind lay like a bewildered bride against a backdrop of the new green.

And all around the goldfinches swooped, the lambs leaped and the calves watched me walk past, so seriously, as though they knew the reason why.

Spring in the Lake District fills you with such constant wonder. You’d have to have no soul not to be affected by it!

Green Tourism

An interesting article on the BBC news web site today

"Leo Hickman, the Guardian's green guru, has just written a book, the Last Call, questioning if our love of travel can be sustained.

Predicting that surging oil prices might put paid to budget flights anyway, he advocates a "Goldilocks approach" to tourism: a three-year cycle of - flight one year, Europe overland the next, and holidaying in Britain the next."

We did it!

Well we took two days away on Tuesday and Wednesday to attend the annual Cumbria Tourism Awards as we had entered for the "Tourism Website of the Year" award.

We had a super time at the Castle Green Hotel in Kendal where the awards were hosted. We had a lovely view from our room and the service was impeccable.

We had lunch at The Watermill at Ings - one of the traditional Lakeland pubs where they serve bar food and great beer without any airs and graces - highly recommended!

In the afternoon we went for a lovely walk up Jenkyn Crag. The ransomes (wild garlic) are out and the scent was almost overpowering.


We were up against some very stiff competition for the web site award from 3 very professional outfits - Mullin Design, English Lakes Hotels and South Lakeland Parks who own Limefitt Park.

Nobody was more surprised than me when they read out the winner's name and it was US!!

The web site has taken up a lot of my time, and it was fantastic to see the effort rewarded like this. It was also really gratifying to see the way in which the other competitors were so generous with their congratulations!



We rounded off the trip with a visit to Levens Hall which was looking stunning in the spring sunshine. Well worth a visit!

What a weekend!

At last the weather has turned and we had a lovely warm weekend. We made full use of it and spent Saturday afternoon sailing on Windermere.

Well, as Captain "Birdseye" Mike observed it was more of a float than a sail as there was no wind, but there aren't many more beautiful places to float than halfway down Windermere!

A couple of pints at The Mortal Man and then home for a barbecue to round off a lovely day.






Next morning we took TT to Windermere to do some skateboarding at the skate park and then had a picnic down by Windermere and went kayaking.

I'm not sure about those ripples on the water now!



















Mid afternoon the weather turned quite dramatically and we drove home through an amazing thunderstorm with forked lightning everywhere and rolling crashes of thunder right on top of us.

What a great way to forget work for 2 days!