10 Great reasons to cancel your holiday in Cumbria

Lots of people work hard to promote the county, support local businesses and encourage people to keep visiting - but enough.  Lots of people seem determined to cancel their hols here and, to be honest, who can really blame them.  Here are a bunch of reasons you might want to consider...

1.  The buildings are all falling down - there's no denying it.

Furness Abbey

Penrith Castle

Shap Abbey

Piel Castle

2. It always rains here - of course it does, it rains here every

Riggindale Valley

 ...single...

Crinkle Crags

 ...solitary...

 ...day.

Windermere

3.  The food is rubbish - best bring a packed lunch

4.  There's nothing to do if you don't like hill walking - good point - I'd never noticed it was so *boring* around here...

Go Ape Grizedale

Coniston Steamers

Morecambe Bay Cycleway

Longbow making at Quirky Workshops

Brockhole Windermere

Gorgeous Greystoke Cycle Cafe 

5.  There's absolutely nothing to do in the evenings - yup, us locals just sit around all evening and stare at the sheep.

There's nothing on the Go Lakes website except for this...

The Brewery Arts Centre in Kendal is also pretty quiet...

I mean, why would you even go to the Rheged Centre...

...or the Theatre by the Lake in Keswick?

Baaaaa

6.  The locals are weird... and they stare at you...

7.  The shops are rubbish - we can't deny that one either, afraid there are no huge shopping malls for you to while away the hours - just these nasty little local shops that insist on sourcing stuff locally instead of flying in exotic goodies from miles away.

Keswick Boot Company

8.  There are no beaches here - no - not one single beach.  Oh, except for these...

9.  There's nowhere to stay... the standard of accommodation is shocking - someone really ought to do something about that...

Armathwaite Hall near Keswick

Crumble Cottages Cartmel

Bays Brown Farm

Photo from FABULOUS Richard Jennings My Wainwrights blog

10.  And if you are going to insist on still coming here, only come in the summer, there's nothing at all to see during the rest of the year...

Honestly, I have no idea why anyone ever comes here - if I were you I'd hit that cancel button right now - you're not going to be missing a thing... (Oh, and if you decide not to cancel, check out this blog for some other things to do & local information.)

PS Don't forget about our books - they are crammed with great reasons to give the county a miss... 😉

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A decision of historical importance

It's been one of those days. I'm feeling a bit under the weather and spent yesterday and this morning melting my brain over a work project. Fresh air was needed. Due to our combined efforts we missed the planned train to Silverdale so trudged home to drive there.

Once in the car I piped up that now we were in the car we could go anywhere - the only problem was neither of us was in the mood to make a decision.  We were half way to Ingleborough  (don't ask), before we decided to turn the car around and go to Leighton Moss.

As we retraced our steps back along the A590 we both noticed a couple of tunnels in the hillside so changed our plans again and decided to go and see what they were. We found a spot, parked up and spent a further 5 minutes deciding whether to go and explore them after all. (Seriously - is it just us that has days like this?).

Anyway, turns out the tunnels were pretty darned interesting and we were very glad we went and had a look - plus we found a fairy house on the way back - bargain.  So here's a few pics of it all, you know, in case you can't decide what to do one day.

Tunnels just big enough for horses

Colourful adjectives

I've written in the past about what walking guides say and what they actually mean and I focused primarily on the directions, well today I want to turn my attention to the way they describe what they see.  Having now written a good selection of walks based in and around Cumbria I can tell you that finding new and exciting ways to describe the landscape isn't always easy - but here's a rough guide to what we really mean...

"Remote" - 5 miles from the nearest Tesco
"Very remote" - 10 miles from the nearest Tesco
"Remote isolation" - 10 miles from the nearest Tesco and no phone signal

Blissfully remote isolation

"Green pasture" - boggy

"Lush green pasture" - very boggy
"Rural idyll" - smells of cow sh*t

A very lush green pasture and a rural idyll to boot.

"Spectacular" - mountains
"Dramatic" - mountains with moody clouds

Dramatic, definitely dramatic

"Peaceful" - lake
"Relaxing" - admiring the lake from the beer garden
"Historic landscape" - lots of old buildings, many of them falling down

Piel Island - Historic Landscape

"Stark beauty" - no trees
"Windswept" - what trees there are are all growing at a 45 degree angle

Windswept and intereseting

"Breathtaking" - that was a bit of a steep climb
"Picturesque" - white stone building in view...
"Quaint" - ...with a thatched roof...
"Idyllic" - ...which just happens to be a pub

Idyllic (hic)

"Barren wilderness" - whaddya mean there's no pub?!

"Rugged" - I may have just sprained my ankle

"Wooded" - trees blocking the views

"Parched landscape" - you're clearly not in Cumbria

Sweet dreams are made of this.

Following our dream to live & work in Cumbria has rarely been easy.  Even this week we've been making difficult decisions about the long planned alterations to our tiny bungalow.  We've been here 5 years now & still have half our stuff in boxes in the undercroft.

But there are some days, like today, that make every ounce of hardship and effort worthwhile.  We're working on a commission for our very good friends at Cumbria Wildlife Trust and decided to take advantage of the sunny skies to get a walk done for them in and around Martindale.  The end result will be out later in the year accompanied by Steve's fab pics but, for now, I just wanted to share these few shots of what has been a spectacular day in the fells. Full time permanent employment may have its perks but I wouldn't have traded today's felltop sarnie and flask for the fanciest business lunch in the poshest restaurant anywhere.  Some things just can't be bought.