The Windermere Lodges Blog » Gardens

Garden Trails and Pub Lunches make a great week

John — Wed, 27 May 2009 10:54:36 +0000

It’s been a bit mixed weather-wise this week, and as I type this I am looking out at a mizzle of rain drifting across the Troutbeck valley. It’s still lovely though:-)

We’ve had

Troutbeck in cloud

and we’ve had

Troutbeck - Just 1 cloud

Fortunately the weather was lovely on Bank Holiday Monday for the Troutbeck Garden trail.

Troutbeck Garden Trail

Troutbeck Garden Trail - cauli art

Troutbeck Garden Trail - What a wisteria!

We had a great lunch at the Queen’s Head (Cumberland sausage and caramelised onions in a french stick with a ovely bowl of chips and a pint of superb Robinson’s ale) that day. I’m quite sunburned as I forgot to put on any cream!

Now it’s time to take Suki for a walk in the gentle rain before lunch.

A Troutbeck walk

John — Sun, 17 May 2009 09:08:25 +0000

Dodging the April showers (Yes, I know it’s May, but that’s what the weather feels like just now) we headed out for a quick circuit of Troutbeck. By the beck we saw a sweep of wild garlic (ransoms) and the scent was overpowering. These are also called bear garlic, but we don’t get many bears round these parts.

Wild garlic (ransoms) next to Troutbeck

A little further on we saw a bank full of purple vetch (which Linda and I agree is the best plant name ever)

Purple Vetch

We walked up through the village ,taking care not to look too hard at the beautiful gardens as it’s the Troutbeck garden Trail next Bank Holiday Monday. We went on down past the sadly boarded up Mortal Man (hopefully soon to be resurrected) and down past the badger holes to the church. As we walked along the dry stone wall we heard what sounded like crickets chirping or birds cheeping s0 we stopped

A wall full of bluetits!

After half a minute out popped an adult blue tit and a fledgling!

Every walk round here brings something different!

10 free things to do on holiday in the Lake District now that Spring is on its way

John — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 21:13:33 +0000

1. Go for a walk

The Lakes is heaven on earth for ramblers – look at one of the free routes on our website and treat yourself to a healthy and free slice of rest and relaxation

2. Go for a bike ride

Whether its on the winding lanes, the bridle paths or the exciting trails at Grizedale and Whinlatter there’s something for everyone on two wheels.

3. Go and look at the wooden carvings in Grizedale Forest

There seem to be more of these whenever we go. Great fun for the kids

4. Take in the “Arts and Crafts ” window and the daffodils at Troutbeck church and then visit Holehird Gardens just down the road

You won’t find a prettier country church or more natural beauty anywhere.

5. Go skateboarding in the park in Windermere Town

Our son makes us take him regularly!

6. Go and find Wordsworth’s Daffodils

At Glencoyne Bay in Ullswater – sheer poetry.

7. Go Geo-caching

All you need is a map and access to www.geocaching.com – find out about this new craze.

8. Visit Grasmere

The village where Wordsworth lived – one of the prettiest in the Lakes. Just walk around it.

9. Go and see the ospreys at Bassenthwaite (from about April)

These birds are seriously regal!

10. Go browsing in the Lakeland Shop in Windermere

You don’t have to buy anything – just marvel at man’s ingenuity and capacity for creating useless but interesting kitchen items! bet you can’t not buy anything though

Holehird Gardens

John — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 16:17:00 +0000

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.

We did it!

John — Wed, 14 May 2008 18:38:00 +0000

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 SLP were so generous with their congratulations! (Who said irony is dead eh girls? )

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