Let's do it

Like everyone I was hugely saddened by the death of Victoria Wood recently; gone too young at only 62.  I'm not just sad because we've lost a huge comedic talent but also enormously sad for her 2 children.  My dad died of cancer when I was just 18 (well technically it was 2 days before my 19th birthday but either way, far too young), so I know what it's like to grow up without a parent around to see you mark the important milestones in your life.

Whilst I was of course devastated by his death, it had a huge impact on my life.  From the age of 18 I was blindingly aware that life was short and unpredictable.  We grew up in a very working class house with a lot of love but not much money and I clearly remember talk about money being put aside each month into his superannuation.  I never saw the books being balanced in but I'm pretty sure that money could have been put to good use in many other ways.  One of the overwhelming things that has stayed with me is that dad saved hard for his retirement but died before he got the chance to relax and enjoy it - and the unfairness of that has always driven me.

It's driven me to not accept mediocre in life, even if that drives the people around me a little nutty.  It's driven me to dye my hair bright colours (currently purple, red and pink) because I like it that way, it's driven me to try and make the most of every single moment, to find pleasure in the simple things rather than "things" and it's what continues to drive me as we journey on in this crazy ass new life we could only have dreamed about 10 years ago.

So many times people have said to me "I'd love to do what you're doing but..." or "I'd love to dye my hair crazy colours too but..."  But what?  It's so very easy to find excuses not to do things and hard to find the reasons to drive you forward - especially when those around you are telling you you're bonkers to even consider it.  I'm not pretending for one minute that this adventure has been plain sailing - I've been redoing the blog index this week and re-reading our early blogs when things, at times, really were desperate but do you know what?  I would do it all again in a heartbeat.

So we don't have the cash to buy the latest big car but we've achieved the dream of publishing a book - and there are two more on the way over the next couple of years.  We get to walk in beautiful countryside, write and take photos and call it work - it doesn't pay the bills yet but we're getting there.  And we get to do things like we did today - Delores needed a habitation check so we dropped her off in Ulverston and set off on the bikes for a day together in the sunshine.  We peddled all the way to Roa Island and back, stopping for lunch and snacks in the sunshine.

Bardsea Church

Beautiful windows by Wilhelmina Geddes

Birkrigg double stone cricle

Gleaston Castle

Dendron Church

Road block!

Tea.  There was cake too but we ate it all...

Of course a new car would be nice - ours makes all sorts of odd knocking and grinding noises - but it gets us from A to B (most of the time!) and we're having the most amazing adventure.  As I've been writing this blog I've also heard that Prince has died - and there have been FAR too many others this year - just all so very sad,  I know she wrote it about something rather different but really - let's do it - let's stop worrying about the small stuff and go out and have an adventure or two.  You can all watch this - I'm off to buy my copy of the Woman's Weekly...

Curse you Kirsty Allsop

My mum was from the "Make do and Mend" generation.  I can clearly recall her darning tights and fixing holes in socks.  She bought up 3 kids on a wing and a prayer and could whip up a dinner from a couple of pigs trotters and a few spuds (I'm not saying it tasted great, I'm just saying she could do it.)  I inherited many things from her, much to Steve's concern, but I did not inherit her ability to wield a needle and fix things, which is a shame as I'm really good at breaking them...

Take my Gore Tex trousers for example - I bought them just after we moved here way back in January 2011 and I managed to keep them in one piece until March 2012 when I slid down Haystacks in the dark, on my backside, at high speed and tore a huge hole in them (and my trousers, and my undies, and my backside!).  We don't have a lot of spare cash and, as a roll of plumbers tape is a lot cheaper than a new pair of trousers, I "fixed" them and spent the next 4 years walking around like this...

I like to think I focused on a practical rather than a pretty solution and though it's not something Kirsty "oh I'm so crafty" Allsop would approve of, it at least kept my backside dry.  Having recently added another hole or two I was beginning to consider the possibility of buying a new pair when an invite arrived for a Patagonia Worn Wear event at George Fishers in Keswick.

 Patagonia's rather splendid idea is to fix your outdoor gear, thus extending its life and saving you money - but that isn't what drives them - what drives them is a desire to keep our tattered and torn gear away from landfill sites.

There's no way I could have handed the remains of my trousers over to a charity shop and, as there are no recycling bins in Asda's car park for "bumless waterproof trousers", the only option left would have been several millennia at the bottom of the local landfill.

I fully expected them to laugh in my face when they saw the size of the challenge but instead they grabbed them with glee and promised to work miracles while we headed off to explore the nearby fells.  They did warn me that the repair would invalidate the Gore Tex waterproof guarantee but I think that ship pretty much sailed when I attempted my freestyle toboggan run down off Haystacks.

Richard from Fix the Fells led us on a walk up onto Bleaberry Fell ("I found my freedom...") and explained all about the fantastic work they do.

Stunning views along to Bassenthwaite

Obligatory team photo on the summit

The winter storms did a lot of damage to the footpaths on the fells but the good news is pretty much all of them are open - if you're planning a hike click here for the latest information on the few paths where there are still problems.

Meanwhile, back at my backside...

The lovely folks at Patagonia had indeed worked miracles! When we got back these were waiting for me - I think I'll miss the blue plumbers tape but at least I'll be dry again now.

After a long walk in the fells and saving over £100 on a new pair of trousers there was only one way to round off the day - a tour of a brewery and Keswick Brewing Co were only too happy to oblige!  We also got to check out their Twizy AND I got to pull a few pints - I may not have inherited my mums ability to Make Do and Mend but my maternal Grandad was a barman and I like to think I learned a thing or two from him...

Grandad (on the right, pulling a face with a pint in his hand - you can't argue
with genetics!)

Worthless Junk

Memory Board or Worthless Junk?

We're just back from 4 nights away at one of our favourite spots in Scotland.  Tucked away in the far south west corner lies Luce Bay and, towards the end of Luce Bay you'll find New England Bay.  Because it's a large rambling campsite wifi is hard to come by and because it's around 20 miles south of Stranraer, it's not exactly awash with mobile phone signal either, making it the perfect place to escape to when you need a few days R&R.

The campsite is pretty much on the beach so, as you sit outside the van sipping wine in the evening, all you can hear is the lapping of the waves and the plaintive call of the curlew.  Unless, like us, you visit in April when the only things you can hear as you sip your wine huddled up inside the van is the howling wind and the rain thundering on the roof.

To be fair Sunday was glorious though VERY windy and we still got out and about the rest of the time, we just took our waterproofs.

Anyway, all those long evenings sat inside gave me chance to ponder our memories board - or "worthless junk" board as some people may call it.  When we acquired Delores just over 6 years ago the first thing I added was a pin board so we could track our anticipated adventures.  It looked pretty empty for the first year or so but now is chock full of odd mementos from the many places we've visited.  There are tickets for a boat tour of Orkney from last summer, a wrist band from the zipwire at the Eden Project in 2014, and a parrot picture, bought at the Pencil Museum in Keswick and coloured in during an enormous storm in 2013 near Bakewell.

Latest addition

None of it has any commercial value and I'm pretty sure very little of it has any aesthetic value but to us it all has huge sentimental value.  We've been through a lot in that van.  It's not overstepping the mark to say she changed our lives (it was while we were on an extended tour that we decided to change our lives completely and move to Cumbria and she was home to us for 3 months when we first came up here - and yes, she's a she.)

Whenever I shuffle off this mortal coil whoever clears out my stuff will waste no time at all shoving it all in the bin, and I don't blame them one bit - the memories are ours and the junk only means something to us.  Photos are all well and good but they spend most of their time hidden in a file on a computer, whereas our memory board is there to peruse in the evenings as the van rocks gently to and fro in the passing gale.

Memories are free but, perhaps it's my age, it's so easy to forget something we've done or a place we visited and an odd little keepsake brings it all back.  We never pay much for our trinkets - this weekend's addition cost us £1 and most of the other stuff is ticket stubs or cut out bits of tourist leaflets - so in a society that seems obsessed with value for money I'd say we were doing pretty well.  (Are we alone?  Do you collect "worthless junk" too?  Maybe it is just me...)

Oh - and if you're wondering what else we got up to this weekend...

Gorgeous bays

Stunning views

Big hills on the bike - Go Steve!

More gorgeous bays

Mull of Galloway lighthouse

Looking towards Cumbria from the top

Luce Bay "I can see Delores from here!"

Birdwatching

VERY lively sea currents

Foghorn

Close up...

Lighthouse again

Well earned!

Kite flying failure

Port Logan

Evening entertainment!

More entertainment (I am NO artist - it's just fun!)

Lake District Submarine Tours

Today sees the start of a brand new and hugely exciting Cumbrian attraction – submarine tours of the lakes.  Research undertaken during the recent extensions of the National Park boundaries revealed that the huge caverns which exist under the Yorkshire Dales actually extend out and under the lakes and fells of Cumbria.  It’s thought these caves have existed since the last ice age but were previously undetected having been filled with stones and gravel.  The floods from Storm Desmond flushed through the cave network, opening it up for the first time in many thousands of years.

The first submarine will set off just before lunchtime today.  The HMS Guzundamountins, which has been refitted locally, will leave from the Lakeside Pier at the south of Windermere at 11:59.  The new venture is providing a welcome boost for the town and offers the opportunity for Trident submarines to be put to good use when the navy don’t need them for a while.

The cruise will head north along the lake before turning left passing under the Grizedale forest and emerging into Coniston Water.  (See map)  The submarine will surface for a tour along the lake and make a short stop for boarding at the boating centre, it will then resubmerge at the head of the lake, surface briefly in Esthwaite and dive again to reappear and drop people off in Bowness.

From Bowness it will continue north towards Ambleside.  As it nears Low Wood Bay it will go down for its longest dive to pass through a very deep underground system of tunnels that extend the whole way to Ullswater and emerge from the rocks beneath Place Fell.  From there it’s a just a short ride to Pooley Bridge at the north end of the lake.

It’s anticipated that the new attraction will prove quite a draw for tourists and an essential boost for the county.  Windermere Lake Cruises are spearheading the venture and working in close partnership with Yeah Low Submarines.  Their CEO, Ms Ayprul Fewell says, “It was surprisingly easy to get permission to do this – I mean who doesn’t want to see a Trident Submarine cruising along Windermere?”

Other Lake District campaigning organisations  were equally laid back commenting “We don’t see how this is a problem – it’s underwater most of the time anyway – we’ve just asked them to ensure that all their weapons systems are disarmed as we’d hate to lose any of the steamers to an over excited toddler pressing the wrong button.”

A spokesperson for Windermere Lake Cruises says “The new attraction is not recommended for those with claustrophobia or strong feelings about nuclear defence vessels.  We hope people will enjoy this new opportunity to explore the lakes, though we should remind people that there aren’t many windows on a submarine.”

Those wishing to book a submarine cruise, or a more traditional lake cruise, can do so by visiting the Windermere Lake Cruises website where you will also find some spectacular photos of the trial runs.  (Trust me, you REALLY want to click that link!)

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