With friends visiting for the weekend and a day of glorious weather, this was the ideal time for a trek up Saddleback, otherwise known as Blencathra.  There are number of routes up to the top but we chose to start from the Blencathra Centre and walked up a well marked grass path up Blease Fell.  … Continue reading Sunshine on Saddleback →

With an early evening temperature of 20 degrees we took a summer-like stroll up Dodd, starting from Millbeck, North of Keswick.  The straightforward looking route on the map which meandered through an area of forest wasn't so easy given that most of the trees have now been felled but the top was highly visible so … Continue reading 2 Seasons in 1 on Dodd →

Its always interesting when moving into a new house to see what pops up in the garden once Spring arrives.  Given that we are close to Grasmere, the home of William Wordsworth, it seems appropriate that we have a host of golden daffodils coming through...  And in the words of Wordsworth himself: I wandered lonely … Continue reading I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud… →

The weather is starting to warm up, hopefully no more snow this year, but with quite a bit of a cloud around we did 2 fairly easy walks close to Keswick.  The first (Latrigg) was a gentle stroll from Applethwaite with good views over Keswick and Derwent Water.  The climb up to Walla Crag was … Continue reading Latrigg and Walla Crag →

After a lengthy winter, including an additional snowfall earlier this week, lambing is now in full swing and we have some new neighbours who appear to be properly dressed for the conditions!

We are used to having a family of red squirrels in the garden and are always reminded that sightings of any grey squirrels should be reported as they represent a threat to the reds but this morning we spotted something completely new.  The same size as our red squirrels, this creature was spotted in a … Continue reading Squirrel Watch →

With a promising weather forecast we headed south and parking at Glenridding, started the 9.5km circular trip up to Glenridding Dodd and Sheffield Pike.  The path up to the former was well marked but quite steep in places while the latter involved a bit of a clamber up some rocky steps.  Reasonably clear skies from … Continue reading Glenridding Dodd and Sheffield Pike →

With the winter weather starting to recede we drove west to Whinlatter and, parking at the Forestry Commission visitor centre, walked up the well-defined path to Whinlatter Top and on to Brown How.  This was a relatively short walk in a bitterly cold wind with quite a bit of snow visible on the higher surrounding … Continue reading Windy Whinlatter →

A friend recently gave us a large bag of damsons so the obvious thing was to try and make our own Damson Gin.  The recipe seems fairly easy - damsons, sugar and lots of Gin - so we have made 6 litres of the stuff (in for a penny, in for a pound).  Will let … Continue reading Damsons in Distress →

No joke, this is national pie week in the UK, first full week of March, so in order to celebrate (and make good use of some leftovers) we made a rather large gluten-free chicken and leek pie which should last a few days...