Day 25: On the road

 As we had anticipated,  this morning was bright and sunny in Keswick.

It was chilly, but not cold, and really clear from our window.

We had promised ourselves breakfast at the Tea House. We had at least 4 hours of driving ahead, even if the roads were clear and a hearty breakfast seemed like a good start.


I had a Cumbrian Breakfast without the baked beans - bacon, fried egg, mushrooms, potato cake and toast, with a strong coffee.





We pulled out of our carpark at Keswick View around 10am. It was a great location and we will all miss the view.











The drive from Keswick to Penrith was lovely.







There was lots of snow on the fells and a bright blue sky.

Around Kendal the wind farms were doing their job.

Just South of Manchester we began to get warning messages that several sections of the M6 were closed and diverted, so we headed  off the M6 on to smaller roads to the West.




At first it seemed as if a significant proportion of the population of England had the same idea and we moved slowly through connector roads and roundabouts, but we finally found ourselves enjoying the countryside in towns like Nantwich







Stapely,

Hatherton,








 Adderley

 Market Drayton












Hinstock
















and Chetwynd, Newport.












While pleasant for me as passenger gazing on the green and pleasant land, it was far from easy driving and we found ourselves in a fair bit of traffic from time to time.













Around 3.30 we stopped for a late lunch near Stafford before entering the tollway, then the motorway, for a final push South.

I had a very delicious blue cheese and mushroom salad.



After a clear trip on the tollway, and a slow stint on the Motorway, we reached our over-night destination, the Stratford Limes Hotel at Tiddington around 6pm. It was a great find by Sue. After a long and, at times challenging, drive this is a pleasant refuge. The rooms are comfortable and quiet. The only door into the hotel closes at 6.30 pm but is accessible using your room key.



The bar, which we had to ourselves,  is tended by our genial host who is playing the 100 best hits of all time in the background.  We  h ave opinions about most of them.

The (free) wifi downloaded these photos in less than 5 minutes.  For the last three weeks it has taken me 2-3 hours.

Tomorrow Sue and Alf head home, dropping me at Hampton Court.

Day 24: Last Day in Keswick: Blencathra and the Derwentwater Hotel

When I rose this morning there was still low cloud over the Fells and it wasn't until about 9.00am before I could see that rain overnight had washed away some of the snow,









True to the forecast, the sun emerged from the cloud around mid-day and we set off for a bit of a drive to see if we could reach a vantage point.







We drove through Borrowdale and St John's-in-the-vale  with some good views of the snowy tops. 

We took the road to Threlkeld and turned up the Blease Road.












Towards the top there is a wonderful moss-covered stone wall

At the top is  towards the Blencathra Field Studies Centre that provides educational programs in the environment and field work for schools, universities, families and individuals.

It is a large, well-equipped property including a substantial stone building with great cornerstones.

The view from the Blencathra Centre is spectacular.

The Thelkeld School had some neat yarn-bombed pencils on its railing.















We drove back down the side of Blencathra and back towards Keswick

 past some of the Fells we can see from our bedroom windows.











heading to Portinscale at the North end of Derwent Water

where we stopped for lunch in the lovely atrium of the Derwentwater Hotel. This is a large, rather old-fashioned hotel with 49 rooms and a number of self-catering apartments.

It was really quiet, apart from the occasional fly-over by the local airforce.










It was really serene and beautiful with views over the lake













and an extensive landscaped garden



































As we drove back into Keswick there was still a lot of cloud but the sun was out.

It was a remarkably restful and spectacular way to spend our last day in the Lakes District.


Keswick turned on a 'will ye no come back again' sunset for our last evening.


We've done a bit of packing preparation snd settled down to watch the Final of the BBC's The Great Pottery Throw Down with a glass of wine.







I knew very little about the Lakes District - apart from poets and Beatrix Potter - before coming here three weeks ago.  I've learnt a lot. Most of all it's been fun, restful and amazingly beautiful.

Day 23: Keswick Museum and snow on the Fells

As predicted, it snowed overnight. The town was simply very wet when I woke this morning, but the Fells were covered with a much heavier blanket of snow.

In between the rain there were squalls of sleet. I tried unsuccessfully to capture them on camera. In the end I made a little video. I hope it works in the blog. 

Alf went out on a reconnaiscence mission and, at 1.0 pm we set off to walk to the Keswick Museum. The River Greta was running very high.

To our disappointment, the complete set of lion's teeth mentioned in Sue's guide book were nowhere on display at the Museum. The attendants had no knowledge of the teeth. The Museum, however, had quite a lot else of interest. 

 A major attraction is the Keswick Musical Stones, lithophone or rock band. Unlike the one we saw in Coniston, visitors were encouraged to try it out.


It really was an amazing piece of work. The local examples are all from hornfels - a layer of sediment formed only on Skiddaw slate compressed on top of granite in geological movement some 399 million years ago. They are hard to find, and need to be of particular size and thickness to get the sound required.





This one was built by the Richardson family in the early 19th century and played for Queen Victoria in 1848.

It is displayed below a splendid case of a taxidermied bird of prey and its catch.

The earliest reference to the musical stones was in the late 18th century when Peter Crosthwaite, a local collector and eccentric, found six stones and spent six months collecting 5 more. This original set is also on display at the museum.











There are quite good collections of birds eggs, butterflies, insects, moths, stone implements and minerals.

There is also a cabinet of Robert Southey memorabilia, including a pair of his shoes. These are collectable because of Southey's poem Reflections on an old pair of shoes. which begins:
Thin and worn out! alas, my poor old Shoes!
My old companions! fellow-travellers
In many an up-hill, down-hill, dirty road!
Gone past all patching! gone beyond the reach
Of cobler, shoe apothecary's skill,
Or graduate master of the gentle craft.

A small room of the Museum is given over to the British mountaineer Joe Tasker who disappeared on Everest in 1982.

I was interested in his favourite books, which included T.S. Eliot's Selected Poems.













A macrame hanging by Betty Tasker pays tribute to the Everest climb.




The display includes an artificial rock, strung with a rope and cards. Visitors can open the cards and research the answers. Quite a good exercise for visiting school children.


 I was less impressed by the snow-suit draped over a non-functioning heater, representing, presumably, Tasker's body in the snow.

There is a magnificent pennyfarthing hanging from the ceiling.

 and a display of spinning wheels rather too high to examine.











A carved  wooden box invites you to open with care and prepare for a surprise.

Inside was a mummified cat.












There was also an item of Ruskin lace.








The current special exhibition at the Museum is a tribute to George and Ashley Abrahams, pioneering climbers and photographers of climbing from 1890. The exhibition features some of their photographs and some contemporary ones by Henry Iddon of 2016 climbers, using the same camera.historical photographs of Keswick. Some are fantastic, including a collection of climbing photos.

I photographed only a couple with reflections and angles that should guarantee they are not reproducible.




















I really loved this photograph of a Fellsman carrying his sheep.

The exhibition is well worth a look if you are in the vicinity.

We paid our own tribute to the Abrahams brothers by taking advantage of the photo opportunity presented by the exhibition. Christine and Eddie really missed out on a photo opportunity

From the Museum we walked back into Lake Street to the Skiddaw Hotel for a 3pm lunch. It is very pleasant sitting in their atrium watching the passing parade of people rugged up in wet weather gear.













Back at the apartment the rain continues and the Fells come into view and recede. There is still a fair covering of snow but it is gradually being washed away.






The forecast for tomorrow has been amended from rain to the sun appearing from behind the clouds and a maximum of 8C for our last day in the Lakes District.