Two have a wintry walk

After about a week of stormy weather it suddenly cleared yesterday and although it was really nippy, we took advantage of the break to have a mooch round Waterhead. There was still quite a lot of snow on the fells, mist over the lake and a crisp frost on the surrounding fields, and it was...

The Wainwright treasure hunt

I've always loved the Wainwright guides to the Lake District. My dad had the entire set and used them frequently to plot walks around the area, and as a kid I enjoyed poring over the maps and occasional sketches of sheep. As an adult that love has continued, and I've also discovered a rich vein...

Weird museum exhibits #1: dodo

I was chatting to a friend on Twitter about the strange things we'd seen and loved in small local museums. These museums are often a treasure trove of eclectic, unusual, and downright bonkers exhibits, and I thought it might be fun to run an occasional blog series about some of the ones I've seen. First...

Monday mystery: garnet(t)s and leprosy

Thanks to this interesting snippet of local history in the Westmorland Gazette, I now know that Kendal had a leper hospital in medieval times. According to the article it was sited on the outskirts of the town (quite common with such an infectious disease, to try to keep it away from the rest of the...

Tea and Lakes

Talk about 'these are a few of my favourite things' - this article in the Manchester Evening News has two of them right there. Afternoon tea, and the Lake District. In other words, a list of great places to have tea in the Lakes. There's a good mix of different types of venues on there....

Arts & Crafts gardens

Two of my favourite things - gardening and the Arts & Crafts movement - in one handy little volume, which I was given as a birthday present in the autumn and have just finished reading. It's part of the Shire 'library' of pocket-sized illustrated guides to subjects which vary wildly in subject matter from trams...

Kendal’s oldest lanes?

I spotted this brief but interesting piece in the Westmorland Gazette a few days ago, which delves into the history of some of the old paths, lanes and back alleys in the oldest parts of Kendal. In particular it focuses on Entry Lane, the wonderfully-named T'Crack, and a possible 'corpse road' (where coffins were carried...

Two get wet in Grasmere

Intermittent showers, the forecast said. Round here, that's usually a euphemism for 'raining all the time but some bits are wetter than others'. Yesterday was no exception, but at least it was only a light rain/drizzle combination rather than anything more soaking, so we set off for a toddle at Grasmere. The fields and fellsides...

What a difference a day makes…

We like to get out walking during the Christmas break, if only to avoid the temptation of sitting about eating chocolate and watching too much TV. Some years the weather fights back but this time it's been reasonable - no snow, no ice, no floods - and we've managed to fit in several strolls. On...