The Windermere Lodges Blog » Grasmere

A visit to Grasmere

John — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 07:31:19 +0000

Grasmere has always been one of my favourite Lake District places, so yesterday we combined a mission to collect some gingerbread with a saunter around the village. We visited our favourite shop in Grasmere – Craglands – to collect our gingerbread voucher from Chris Shaw (@cragchris on Twitter) from whom we had won it in her Twitter competition.

Craglands

If you are looking for interesting jewellery or knitwear be sure to pop in and say hello. Chris is passionate about Grasmere and you can be sure of a warm welcome and a great selection to browse .

On the way to the gingerbread shop we passed through the churchyard. It’s a lovely churchyard and there was some amazing orange lichen on a couple of the graves.

Orange Lichen

Last weekend was the Grasmere Rushbearing and the church was still decked out beautifully.

Grasmere Church

The aisle

A rush harp

A serpent

Peace

Crosses

We made the obligatory visit to William Wordsworth’s grave

Wordsworth's Grave

before we made it to the queue outside the gingerbread shop.

The Gingerbread Shop at Grasmere

Why were we queueing? You’ll have to buy some gingerbread to find out! It really IS worth it

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

Doves

John — Wed, 28 May 2008 07:56:00 +0000

In the evening we went out for dinner with friends. We met up at the Villa Columbina next to Dove Cottage (well it IS Dove Cottage if you are 2000 years old

It was our first time at this Italian restaurant and I was extremely impressed. We got excellent Italian food at reasonable prices and service that was absolutely immaculate.

Children are made more than welcome – they are treated like adults and this seriously impressed 10 year old TT. They also get child sized portions of main dishes if they want and doggy bags too. It was a 20 mile round trip, but well worth it to find a restaurant where they have such a complete but apparently natural understanding of what represents excellent customer service and value for money for families.

We’ll be back!