The Windermere Lodges Blog

The White Ladies of Troutbeck

John — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 09:46:49 +0000

There is a local legend that many years ago there were two twins whose husbands both went missing on the same night when their ship out of Maryport foundered in a storm. They wandered each day up from Troutbeck to the top of the Kirkstone Pass in the hope of seeing their menfolk returning and when darkness fell they made their sad way down the hill back to the village. One night they were hit by the mail coach and one twin was decapitated and the other was cut right in half.

On July nights their ghosts are sometimes said to be seen on the Patterdale Road. This detail from a photo taken last night of Limefitt Park surprised us when we looked at it as it seems that two ladies in white are clearly visible!

The White Ladies of Troutbeck?

How’s this for a restaurant view?

John — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 09:40:44 +0000

We went to the Mortal Man last night for a family dinner. For a change we sat in the restaurant rather than the bar and we enjoyed this view from the table.

View from The Mortal Man Restaurant

Stunning!

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

August availability in our brand new lodge – Troutbeck View

John — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 12:00:00 +0000

I’ve been a bit quiet of late as we’ve been away on holiday and as soon as we got back we had to get into preparing our new Troutbeck lodge – Troutbeck View. We’ve been putting our backs into it all week and we now have my sister in law “road testing” the lodge to make sure all is as it should be.

Troutbeck View Lodge

We are up and running and ready for guests now and have availability from next friday – 30th July

Visit http://www.troutbeckview.co.uk/ for details of pricing and availability

Suki shows she’s a real flatcoat at the 2010 Ullswater Show

John — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 19:27:31 +0000

Today we went to the Ullswater Show. They had a fantastic day for it . On the way in a gentleman came up and asked Linda if she’d mind coming into the ring with Suki as he was doing a demonstration about working dog breeds. Suki duly demonstrated that she does have a mind of her own when it comes to furry things she’s asked to retrieve. I just love the way that the guy’s two black labs just sit there, stock still like book ends, looking bemused by Suki’s naughtiness.

We had great fun and also entered her into the companion dog show. The first time we had ever done anything like this. No rosettes this time but we all enjoyed it.

There were dogs everywhere at the show, but no donkeys. To see them we had to drive home and watch 90 minutes of football.

Falconry Display and Pony Trekking at Limefitt Park, Troutbeck

John — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 10:23:19 +0000

Today at 2 pm they are going to be flying hawks here at Limefitt Park in Troutbeck

You can see some of these beauties.

Falconry at Limefitt Park

Midnight

and my favourite, thomas the American Kestrel

Thomas

Oh yes – and there’s free pony trekking for the kids too!

A Round at Windermere Golf Club

John — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 20:33:03 +0000

So today South Lakeland Parks hosted an inter-park golf competition. Windermere golf club has to be one of the most beautiful golf courses in the country. The view of the Langdales even on a hazy and humid day like today is worth the green fee!

Windermere Golf Club

As well as the beautiful scenery there was wildlife – I’ve never been closer to a cock pheasant than this one.

Pheasant

Of course it may just have been getting close enough to laugh at my golf.

Mind you – you are reading a post from this year’s Limefitt Park champion golfer

Limefitt Park Trophy

Now if you don’t tell anyone that I was the ONLY golfer from Limefitt Park, I won’t either.

I had a good first 9 but messed up big style on the back 9. The overall winner was John Smith from Fallbarrow. I thought he looked a bit like Jack Niklaus and I don’t think John Smith was a very good pseudonym.

To be fair, 41 points was a very respectable score and today I couldn’t get near that, so well done John. Your trophy was far better deserved than mine

Now for those of you who have a taste for trivia – what distinguishes Windermere Golf Club from most other courses?

It has no bunkers!

(To be honest it doesn’t need them – the rough and the bits of sticky out rock are challenging enough without them!)

Foxgloves and Cobwebs

John — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 06:02:02 +0000

I took Suki round Ing Bridge yesterday for the first time for a while. Recently we’ve all been a bit pre-occupied with getting the new Lodge, Troutbeck View, up and running, so it was good to get out even though it was a bit overcast. The hedgerows seem to have erupted since I was last there and there was a profusion of foxgloves, red campion and dog roses. I came across these on the bridle path up to the A592.

Flowers in Troutbeck

On the same stretch of road there were several trees covered in ghostly looking cobwebs.

Ermine Moth Cobweb

Whilst the effect is quite pretty – somewhere between candyfloss and the Adams family – it seems that these webs are caused by caterpillars of the ermine moth and that whole trees and hedgerows get destroyed by the little rascals.

Perhaps the most noticeable thing on the walk though was the lack of water. One of the rills that runs into Troutbeck and where Suki normally cools off was totaly dry. Troutbeck itself is trickling down with more gravel than water in some places. I know our guests are enjoying the lovely weather we have had over the last two months but we do need rain before long. Who’d have thought we’d have been complaining of not geting enough rain in the Lake district?

Heaven is a place in Cumbria

John — Sun, 23 May 2010 16:05:02 +0000

So yesterday it was hotter in the Lake District than it was in Corfu. We woke this morning to another gorgeous day. Dappled sunlight coming in through the blinds and birds twittering outside.

Limefitt Park - Troutbeck Lodges

We had breakfast on the deck and saw a deer saunter by.

Deer

Perhaps our appreciation of the day is a bit subjective though! When you can put on shorts and a T-shirt days like this are beautiful. But what if you have to wear a black fur coat? Well Suki did find a way to cool down. I think this is Flatcoat heaven

Flatcoat Heaven on a Sunny Day

Walking back through Limefitt Park, we noticed this lovely picnic glade that they have created.

Picnic Glade at Limefitt Park

It’s enchanting isn’t it

Just further on we walked up to the Pony Trekking centre which has opened in Troutbeck this year. I hope they make a big success of this as it’s a great facility for our guests. It’s hard to imagine a more idyllic setting for a ride than this isn’t it? If Carlsberg did Pony Trekking …..???

If Carlsberg did Pony Trekking ....

Man Stuff at Surf The Turf

John — Sun, 23 May 2010 15:55:55 +0000

This weekend my eldest son took a break from being a hotshot web designer and paid us a visit from London. It seemed like an ideal opportunity for a bit of boys’ fun with him and his younger brother Tom.

Now Tom is already a bit of an ace mountain boarder and was very keen that Michael should try it. As I was going to have to drive them there I bit the bullet and decided that even at my advanced age I would still hack it. As you might imagine there might have been a bit of “Competitive Dad” syndrome at work here too

We duly arrived at Surf The Turf near Kendal on the hottest day of the year so far (27 C and hotter than Corfu). The hill looked fantastic

Surf The Turf

Amazingly those white areas are a sea on dandelion clocks waiting to explode as you pile into them on your training runs.

We met up with Sam, our teacher and he took us through the “J” Turn and then the power slide so that we could stop on the hill. We then had a drink in the shade and a chat before going on higher up the hill and getting on to the jumps and rails. Sam was really great – a nice easy going guy who knew how to encourage us but never pushed us too far.

It was HOT on the hill and hard work going up every time, but I didn’t do too badly for an old bloke who had never even managed to stand up on a skateboard before

It amazed me that after one lesson we were both able to do small jumps and rails and get down the main slope at some speed. It’s a sport that rewards you far more quickly than snowboarding or surfing although I should point out that I have a very sore bum after falling over onto it more than once (in spite of the ample cushioning )

Anyway, here’s a quick video of us having a GREAT afternoon – there would be some of the beginning but Tom’s Flip Mino video camera has decided to die on us (no moving parts but it’s suddenly stopped working and nothing will resuscitate it – Gee thanks Flip!)

and here’s Michael’s last run of the day taken on his Iphone.