Best places to see the bluebells

It's bluebell time again, my favourite time of year, and there's a short window to see them in the next couple of weeks, so here's two of the best places to spot them in all their glory in the Lakes this spring:-

Rannerdale

In the hidden valley of Rannerdale near Buttermere there is an unmissable display of bluebells every year. Combine them with a walk up to Rannerdale Knotts, my favourite fell climb, and you have a perfect day out.

Picture taken gratefully from http://www.english-lakes.com/

A guided walk to see them at their best has been organised by the Lake District National Park Authority and is happening on the 12th May
http://www.lakedistrict.gov.uk/visiting/events/lake-district/12-may-2012-secret-valley-of-the-bluebells

Dufton Ghyll and Flakebridge Woods near Appleby

This is a gorgeous place for a walk and the bluebells make a spectacular carpet to the wood at this time of year.

Picture taken from http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/390082

Make the most of the woods with a guided walk with the Friends of the Settle to Carlisle Railway on the 19th May this year.
  http://www.foscl.org.uk/guided-walks/bluebells-flakebridge-woods/2012/05/19

Perfect places to picnic

The clouds are drawing in, it's -3 on the tops, it must be nearly time for picnic season! We were thinking yesterday about all the great spots we've come across for picnicking and thought we might share a few with you in the hope that you might share some of yours with us!

So in no particular order here are some of our favourites-

Small Water, Haweswater

A gorgeous spot accessible with a bit of effort from the little ones. Park at Mardale at the far end of Haweswater and follow the rocky path signposted Kentmere via the Nan Bield pass. It's scrambly and good fun with a couple of stepping-stone water crossings. When you get to Small Water you are rewarded with views down to Haweswater and lots of places to sit and picnic and throw in stones. .

Friars Crag, Keswick

My favourite minimum effort picnic spot. Drive to Keswick, park at the Theatre by the Lake follow the lakeside path to Friars Crag described by Ruskin as one of the three most beautiful scenes in Europe; fight your way onto the bench to enjoy that famous view or go on a tiny bit further and, hey presto, grassy lakeside shores are all yours. Take a football and your crocs for paddling and enjoy it all afternoon long.



Yew Crag, Gowbarrow, Ullswater

A good one for those who want to look at the water without the wee ones being in the water. Start at the Aira Force car park and walk up to the right, go through a gate that takes you away from the falls and to the side of Gowbarrow Fell. Follow the gentle upward path parrallel to the lake until you get to a stone seat placed there in 1905 with a message of thanks to God, opposite is Yew Crag, park your bum and enjoy!


Suprise View, Keswick

 Drive out of Keswick on the B5289 to Borrowdale. Go over the famous Ashness Bridge and keep going until the Suprise View car park, opposite which you will find the truly wonderous viewing spot seen here. If you can manage to pull yourselves away from the view, follow the tracks along into the trees to the lovely path to Watendlath (makes for a gorgeous walk) along the side of the beck.

There are lots of places along the beck that make perfect spots for picnics and paddling. Just don't forget the spare trousers!!

Great Crag, Borrowdale

Bang in the middle of Wainwright's most lovliest square mile, this is a great picnic spot for lovers of stairs - and not so good for those with no head for heights!

Park at Rosthwaite and cross the bridge over the beck, head up and up and up some more on the stone staircase through the woods and you will be rewarded at the top with a fab clearing with spectacular views over Borrowdale.
















                                                                  
Loughrigg Terrace, Grasmere

Solitude is unlikely here but great views are guaranteed . Park at White Moss car park and cross the bridge over the river then follow the path upwards. At the top there is a choice of left or right for views over Grasmere or Rydal water. If you turn right and follow the path along you can turn off to the left to ascend Loughrigg itself - not a bad choice for a first fell climb.






Sandwick Bay Ullswater

The drive to Sandwick Bay is almost as much fun as the destination. Drive past Howtown and keep going, you might think you're in the Tour De France at times as you zig zag along through Martindale! Follow the signposts to the hamlet of Sandwick where the road ends, park up (if pos) and enjoy the view from the lovely sandy beach. Gorgeous...

National Learn to Play Day

Today is National Learn to Play Day and to celebrate Lakeland Music in Penrith are offering free taster lessons on the 2nd,3rd & 4th of April for piano, guitar, keyboard, violin, saxophone, banjo, flute, trumpet & drums.

Phone 01768 864024 to make the most of this great opportunity, or see their webpage for more details http://www.lakelandmusic.uk.com/index.php 

The Kendal Passion Play

We're one Easter bonnet parade away from the holidays here and very much looking forward to two weeks off school. I have to admit that we are more about the bunnies and chocolate in our house, but if you want to teach your kids about the real meaning of Easter and be part of something rather wonderful you could do a lot worse than head over to Kendal this holiday weekend.

For the first time in 400 years the Easter Passion Play will be performed on the streets of the town, starring local volunteers including the mayor as Jesus. The play starts at 4pm on Good Friday at Kendal Library and continues throughout the town culminating with the Cruxification at the Brewery Arts Centre at about 6pm. On Easter Saturday a fire sculpture display will accompany the scenes following the Resurrection at Kendal Castle.

You can get further information including a map of the route and rehersal updates here http://apassionforkendal.blogspot.co.uk/

Aira Force and a host of golden dafodils

Aira Force is one of the Lake District's most visited destinations. As popular today as it was in the Victorian times, it attracts hundreds of visitors each weekend, as can be seen by the fullness of the car park on sunny days!

Don't let this put you off though, it's popular because it's so lovely. The waterfall is spectacular, as are the wonderful trees surrounding it including monkey puzzles and the most enormous sitka spruce ever seen; and the walk up along good paths and steps is highly enjoyable.

It's great as an adventure walk for young tots - you need go no further up than the viewing point this picture was taken from (in 1890!!), or if they are feeling more energetic head up to the bridge and beyond - the rocks along the babbling river higher up make excellent picnic and stick throwing-in spots. It's a great walk for grown up visitors to the lakes too, the pub up at Dockray making a perfect stop off spot for lunch or much needed refreshments!

We make the walk longer by heading off to the right and following a track parallel to Ullswater to the summit of Gowbarrow. A walk mapped and described perfectly in Striding Edge our absolute favourite guide to all things Wainwright http://www.stridingedge.net/Walks/2011/09.%20September/22.09.11.htm
The views along the length of the lake are well worth the extra effort and the walk back beside the waterfall makes a perfect ending.

Which ever way you decide to go, don't miss the fabulous money tree on the way down. We have no idea why there are thousands of pennies hammered into this old log but we do know that they're sure as heck not coming out!

BTW The National Trust own the land around the waterfall and while you don't have to pay to walk there, you do have to pay to park. There are ways to get round this, ie by parking in one of the laybys on the road up to Dockray but actually we reckon that the Trust do a great job and we prefer to start at the bottom.

Will leave you with this wonderful picture of spring daffodils taken gratefully from davesdistrictblog.blogspot.com. The shores of Ullswater are where Wordsworth wandered lonely as a cloud, and now is the perfect time of year for seeing hosts of golden daffodils in all their glory.

Do something amazing for free

How about spending a day out learning new skills, making new friends, and doing something wonderfully worthwhile?

This is an opportunity open to all through the Cumbria Wildlife Trust, Cumbria's only voluntary organisation devoted solely to the conservation of wildlife and wildplaces. The trust was formed in 1962 and according to their website cares for over 40 nature reserves, campaigns for the protection of endangered habitats and species such as limestone pavements and red squirrels, and works with adults and children to discover the importance of the natural world.

Their excellent website  http://www.cumbriawildlifetrust.org.uk/ provides details of each of the 40 nature reserves they look after and how to visit them. You can help the Trust by volunteering to help with work such as planting trees, building boardwalks, and scrub clearance. A full list of forthcoming events is available in the What's On section of the website. A quick check for March reveals brash burning at Smardale, tree-cutting at Wreay Woods and coppicing at Grange-over-Sands amongst other events and meetings, many aimed at children. No experience neccessary. Have a look and see what amazing things you could do this week...

An apology and a challenge

Our poor neglected blog! We are so sorry for not updating much in the last 12 months. Things are going to change though. We are back and fired up with lots of ideas for free days out in this beautiful county of ours. So with spring around the corner we have decided to challenge ourselves to coming up with at least one idea per week, that's 52 days of free fun folks. Watch this space....

BTW wondering what we've been doing all this time? We've most definitely not been sitting on our laurels, we've still been enjoying our free days out ticking off our Wainwright walks. 22 down 192 to go...

We scream for ice-cream

We love Abbots Lodge Jersey Ice Cream Farm. With sixteen flavours of creamy jersey ice cream to chose from what's not to like? Ice cream isn't free you might say - well no it's not, but it's cheap and at Abbots Lodge you get the added bonus of really good indoor and outdoor play areas where you can play for as long as you like for absolutely nothing. Bargain! Make mine a double mud pie.. 
http://www.abbottlodgejerseyicecream.co.uk/index.htm

Wainright for beginners

Our little adventurers are 6 and nearly 4 now. We've done our fair share of pushchair walks and ambles around lakes, the time has now come to heighten their horizons! This afternoon they did their first ever Wainwright - a very short but steep hike up to Walla Crag above Derwentwater and Keswick.

There are 214 peaks in Alfred Wainwright's series of books about the Cumbrian Fells, we've been thinking that it would be cool to start off doing some of the smaller ones and get higher and higher as the boys get older. We've found two really great free resources on t'internet to help us with our mission - the first is http://www.hill-bagging.co.uk/ which lets you register and log your peaks as you climb them, and the second is http://www.stridingedge.net/ - a photo diary of one family's walks on the fells. The great thing about Stridingedge is that it has photos of all the walks and a little map of the routes used showing where to park, it also lists the walks in order of height as well as geographical location - very useful for those of us wanting to start at the bottom of the list! So here we are - Barney and George at 379 metres on the cairn at the summit of their Wainwright number1 - Walla Crag. Good work boys!

Who likes castles?

Who likes free days out at castles? We couldn't resisit this one. On saturday Brough Castle will be hosting a Roman Day. There will be a Roman re-enactment, story tellers, ancient craft demonstrations, archery, a visit from Lady Anne Clifford, fancy dress competition, falconry demonstration, medieval themed market, with local food producers, and medieval crafts and activities.
This is an event for all of the family, with a hog roast on site and a free bus service from the nearby town of Kirkby Stephen on a Classic Coach – parking is also available at the castle. Maybe see you there...

Love Parks Week 24th July - 1st August

The organisers of Love Parks Week say it is the perfect excuse to get outdoors and enjoy the summer, with hundreds of events taking place in the UK’s parks and green spaces. The campaign is designed to celebrate and support our parks, so why not visit your local park during the week to show what it means to you?

In Carlisle the programme kicked off on Saturday with Homebase, the people who famously transformed Carlisle Railway Station, working their magic again, this time creating a park on English Street, complete with turf, benches, flowers and giant jenga. It made for a welcome oasis for the weary shoppers who were making the most of it with picnics and games when we went to take a look.

A full list of events can be found at http://www.loveparksweek.org.uk/ but in Carlisle the highlights include:-

'Into the Woods' at Talkin Tarn
28/07/2010 - 28/07/2010
Talkin Tarn Country Park

Flicks at Bitts
01/08/2010 - 01/08/2010
Bitts Park
Jazz Picnic in the Cathedral grounds
27/07/2010 - 27/07/2010
Carlisle Cathedral grounds
Nature in Bitts Park
27/07/2010 - 27/07/2010
Bitts Park
'On Yer Bike' in Bitts Park
28/07/2010 - 28/07/2010
Bitts Park Playing Fields, Dacre Road
Poetry Picnic in the Cathedral Grounds
29/07/2010 - 29/07/2010
Carlisle Cathedral grounds
Storytime in Tullie House Garden
28/07/2010 - 28/07/2010
Tullie House Museum
Tai Chi in Portland Square
30/07/2010 - 30/07/2010
Portland Square

The scarecrows that bring the flocks in....

photos from www.langwathbyscarecrows.co.uk

If you wander down to Langwathby next weekend you might be in for a suprise. At first glance the wedding in the church looks normal, and the builders sitting in the sunshine nothing unusual. But look a little closer and things begin to look stranger, are those pirates on the village green? And why are Dennis the Menace, Scooby Doo and Wallace and Gromit here, and more importantly, not moving?! It's all part of the annual Langwathby Scarecrow Festival, scheduled to take place this year on the 10th and 11th July. The festival has been running since 2004 and brings in thousands of visitors to the village. Last year there were over 150 scarecrows on display, with the winner, voted for by the public, being Raymond Wilson, with Band on the Run. His super cool scarecrow band came complete with flashing lights and beating drumsticks! This year, as well as the famous scarecrow trail, there will also be a farmers market, bouncy castle, and children's rides. Refreshments are to be served at the village hall, where all proceeds from the festival go, and include a bbq on Sunday. Let's keep our fingers crossed for sunshine!

Meetings with remarkable trees - part one

One of the great perks of being a librarian is getting to look at lots of lovely books. This isn't always so thrilling when you're an agricultural librarian like me - the joys of Mechanised Vegetable Production and Field Drainage Methods can be limited. But every now and then a gem falls into my hands that completely captures my imagination. And so it was last week when I came across Ancient Interesting and Unusual Trees of Cumbria written by Amy Bradshaw. It's a very small book lisiting 15 trees of interest in the county. I've got to be honest and say to the untrained eye some are slightly less interesting than others. But some are absolutely fascinating. We went to look at Number 13 -The Giant Tree today, chosen purely for its Enid Blyton-esque pleasing name.

The Giant Tree is a Silver Fir which was planted at the Armboth estate on the far shores of Thirlmere in 1821. Amy tells us that in 1994 it was 43 metres tall (141ft), and we're betting that it's lots biggger now. The walk to the tree was lovely, perfect for small people as it's only about a mile round trip. Park at the Thirlmere Armboth car park then follow the yellow spots for the Giant Tree through a very deep dark wood, with fairie steps, tumbling waterfalls and lots of trip trap bridges. The tree itself is huge, it's impossible to get a sense of scale in the photos. We lay on the ground and imagined how long it would take a squirrel to hop to the top!

On the way back down from the tree there is a ring of seven beech trees called the Cockpit where the sport of cockfighting used to take place before it was banned in 1835. Amy suggests that this flat, shadey spot would make a nice place for a summer picnic, but we thought that picnicking on the site of former brutality might feel a wee bit creepy. And speaking of which if anyone likes to be scared witless whilst in a deep dark wood you could tell them all about the ghostly goings on at Armboth House.

The house which has laid beneath the waters of Thirlmere, since October 1894, when the reservoir was completed, was claimed to he the most haunted house in Cumberland. Legend has it that two centuries ago the daughter of the family of the house was about to get married on Halloween, but in the midst of the preparations a stranger rushed into the house to tell the family that the bride had been pushed violently into the water and drowned. No one knew who had murdered the girl, but the bridegroom was suspected for some time. Afterwards on Halloweens strange happenings occurred. Bells would ring, furniture would move across the floor without human assistance, plates would crash to the floor, lights would appear and disappear, and even a strange ghostly form of a dog was seen swimming in the water. People say that even now on Halloween wedding bells can be heard tolling under the water. Yikes, get me out of the forest!

A series of extraordinary events

I can't talk about free days out in Cumbria without mentioning Lakes Alive. Lakes Alive was set up last year to offer a series of arts and performance events in different towns across Cumbria. We've already seen human towers in Penrith, the lighting of Hadrians wall, cardboard box building in Carlisle, and giant fish and flying angels in Whitehaven.

But don't worry you haven't missed out on all the fun, there is still a lot more weird and wonderful eye-candy to come. http://www.lakesalive.org/events/ has full details of the fabulous programme for the rest of the year. Look forward to the sinking of the titanic in Carlisle, bombs in Maryport, puppets in Penrith and giant pigs in Grizedale. We for four can't wait!

photos from: lakesalive.org