Steaming!

Today we have had hail and rain and sun - a real mixture. When the sun came out a few minutes ago the roofs of the lodges all began to steam - it looked quite surreal.

New toy

Yesterday I got a new toy to play with - a GPS that I got to do geocaching. Geocaching is a fairly new sport which involves finding your way to a location which you have the map co-ordinates for and then hunting for a small item (often like an old 35mm film tube). The nearest cache we could get details of was just down by the church in Troutbeck, so we trooped off looking a bit conspicuous holding what looked like a large yellow mobile phone. TT was very excited to find the cache and hopefully we have found a new way to winkle the limpet away from it's secure position by the TV!

Wordsworth's Daffodils and Aira Force

Tuesday was glorious spring day so we went up to Ullswater to seek out Wordsworth's daffodils. The story goes that he was walking back down Ullswater with his sister Dorothy when they came to Glencoyne Bay (just past Aira Force going South). Dorothy recorded the event in her diary and it is thought that it was the inspiration for the famous poem. They are certainly very beautiful.

We then went further up the lake to the North and walked up to Aira Force. On the way we passed proof that money can grow on trees. Well almost. This tree which is on the way up to the waterfal from the National Trust car park is studded with coins left there by passing visitors.

The waterfall itself was in full force and it was suprisingly busy - well OK it was school holidays and a lovely day.

There was lovely view of Ullswater on the way back. The Lake District looks different as the seasons change, and these rather spare and dramatic views will soon give way to a countryside covered in the new green.

More snow but some new lives!

The weather this week doesn't know whether to be Winter or Spring as you can see from this picture of the Kirkstone end of the valley.

It's been very cold and they are forecasting further frost and wintery showers.

Spring is definitely on it's way though as we could tell from the number of new lambs. There's nothing unusual in seeing new born lambs at this time of year in the Lake District of course.




What was slightly more unusual was to see a new born calf at Long Green Head farm. It looked as though it had only just been born and that if we had happened along a moment or two earlier we might even have witnessed the birth. It was stumbling around trying to work out where to feed for a minute or two before finally latching on to it's mum.

A bit further along we saw Nature's answer to the weaker new arrivals soaring around above us. Troutbeck has a fairly big population of buzzards and they can often be seen flying around over the fells.

Cumbria Tourism - New Eco Marketing Initiative

We were very excited to learn of some of the recent locally focused marketing initiatives from Cumbria Tourism.

One of the most interesting is the W.O.O.L. (Windermere Opportunities from Ovine Literacy) scheme that is being seamlessly woven into the fabric of the local eco-tourism marketing strategy.

By teaching sheep to form basic letter structures as they graze it will be possible to create environmentally friendly mobile advertisements that blend into the local scenery.

For a small fee you will therefore be able to have an advert for your business on a Lakeland fell side of your choice. There have been some teething troubles and sheep are notoriously slow learners. Consequently the scheme will be limited to the display of initials in the early stages, but it is hoped that full word adverts will be available before the end of the year.

Preliminary tests in Troutbeck are showing encouraging results. Here is the Windermere Lodge advertisement on its way to being fed at 9.a.m this morning.