Mosaic Monday #55: An Autumn Amble

Derwent Water

A trip to the UK is not complete until we have visited the Lake District.  Also known as the Lakes or Lakeland, it is a mountainous region in Northwest England.  A popular holiday destination, it is famous for its lakes, forests and mountains, and its associations with William Wordsworth and Beatrix Potter.  The Lake District National Park was established in 1951 and covers an area of 2,362 square kilometers.  It was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2017.  You can read other posts about the Lakes here, here and here.

Ladies' Wellingtons ("wellies")

This time, our day out commenced with a stop at the Mainsgill Farm Shop, a scant 30 minutes from my in-laws' house.  The number of farm shops in the UK has exploded since the mid-1970s, when farms began to expand from a simple stall at the farm gate to a formal shop on site.  It is estimated there are 3,500 farm shops nationwide, up from 1,200 a dozen years ago.  Many of these operations have become tourist attractions in their own right, with play barns, petting zoos and full-service cafes.  While on-site family attractions can be a significant draw, the core principle of quality home-produced food remains the key to success for these farms.

"We are a livestock farm producing our own meats and bakery produce"

Left and middle - so many beautiful tins

Upper right - kids' wellies      Lower right - chocolate Santa!

Top - look closely at the 'sausage mummies' and the 'spooky beef pumpkins'

Middle - we might not be in Montana, but the ski lodge followed us here

Bottom - I resisted the urge to buy the hedgehog notebook and the mead!

If you'd like to learn more, this link is an excellent article about the evolution of farm shops in the UK.

We parked near Ashness Bridge, one of the most photographed bridges in the Lake District, with a plan to walk to Watendlath.  This small hamlet nestles against Watendlath Tarn and offers a lovely tea shop to break up the walk.

Click to enlarge if you want to read the fine print

Quickly, we reached a view point overlooking Derwent Water, and it brought back memories of the hike to Cat Bells with my sister and her husband in the summer of 2017.  Cat Bells is the summit that you see through this frame of trees - how fun to think that 15 months ago we were on the hillside on the other side of this lake!

After climbing a bit more through the wood, the path emerges next to a stream, crossed by this lovely wooden bridge.  From that point, the stream was always on our left, and the land stretched away into farm fields until it abruptly rose to dramatic craggy outcroppings.  The photo opportunities were endless, but I will restrain myself and give you just the best of the views that day.

A waterfall marks the transition from the path to the hamlet of Watendlath, and you traverse another packhorse bridge to reach the tea shop.  The weather was kind enough to permit outdoor seating, and birds flitted among the tables, cleaning up the wayward crumbs.

After our break, we utilized the free (!) public restrooms.  A sign on the outside wall contained some deeply surprising information - Watendlath used to be owned by the monks of Fountains Abbey!  One of the largest and best preserved Cistercian monasteries in England, Fountains Abbey is another one of our treasured spots, and I wrote about our last visit there in June 2017.  So I was charmed to find that the two are connected, especially considering that Watendlath is 100 miles from the Abbey.  The monks of that day had a long reach!

As we left the hamlet to walk back to the car, I paused to capture the packhorse bridge, and just then a couple passed over it.  With typical British humor, the male half of the couple posed for a picture.  What a character!

Near the car park, the Bark House stands with a fine view of Ashness Bridge and Derwent Water beyond.  In 1989, Spousal Unit stayed here with his scout group.  Can you imagine 19 young men in this small hut?

It is called the Bark House because it was used to store bark for the leather industry

The sun was drifting toward the horizon as we motored to the nearest village, Keswick.  Fortune was in our favor - market day in the village had brought scores of vendors to the marketplace in the center of town.  I was delighted to spy a representative of the Bird of Prey Centre, with a feathered companion.  We gladly paid the fee to get my picture taken with Fuzz, a southern white-faced owl that was bred in captivity and serves as an adorable ambassador for his fellow raptors.

We made the most of the remaining light to stroll through the park to Derwent Water.  We have passed this way many times, from our dating days to summer holidays with the kids to our last visit in the summer of 2017 with my sister and her husband.  It brought back such pleasant memories of putt-putt golf, and feeding the ducks and geese.  The gardens were past their prime, but I still managed to compose some colorful shots.

In a fitting end to the day, we had dinner at the George and Dragon pub.

Given our visit to Wainwright country, it was entirely appropriate (although perhaps a coincidence) that the men were drinking Wainwright golden ale served in a Wainwright glass.  I wholeheartedly endorse the advice printed on the glass - "Find Your Mountain".

Due to travel, I may be late in commenting on your blog posts, but I will be on-line this week.  Hope you can join in!

Mosaic Monday

Welcome to Mosaic Monday, a weekly meme where we get together to share our photo mosaics and collages.
Please include at least one photo mosaic/collage in your post.
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Thank you for joining in today and sharing your mosaics with us. 

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Rosthwaite and Buttermere (Showing off a "Small Island" Part 10)

"It is a walk in heaven."

Rosthwaite

So says A. Wainwright, waxing lyrical about Rosthwaite.  Who's A. Wainwright, you ask?  Only the architect of the Coast to Coast Walk in the UK.  And Rosthwaite?  A village nestled in Borrowdale in the Lake District of the UK.  Thoroughly confused?  Then let me start at the beginning.

From Wikipedia: Alfred Wainwright MBE was a British fellwalker, guidebook author and illustrator.  His seven-volume Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells, published between 1955 and 1966 and consisting entirely of reproductions of his hand-written manuscript, has become the standard reference work to 214 of the fells of the English Lake District.  Among his 40-odd other books is the first guide to the Coast to Coast Walk, a 192-mile long-distance footpath devised by Wainwright which remains popular today.  (From that guide, I drew the quote above.  Yes, we own a copy!)

In reviewing the guide for this post, I was amused to note his dedication: "Dedicated to the second person (unidentifiable as yet) to walk from St. Bees Head to Robin Hood's Bay".  I wonder if it would surprise Mr. Wainwright to know that these days, more than 5,000 people complete the walk every year?  Just imagine the footfalls since the guide was originally published in the Westmorland Gazette in 1973, and since first formally published as a book in 1992.  A whole industry is in place to support Coast to Coast (often abbreviated C2C) walkers - from outfitters that will transport spare clothing and other necessities for pick-up at key points, to farms that welcome campers, and every level of service in between.  Keep in mind that the walk absorbs 12 - 14 days ….

Spousal Unit and I number among the 5,000 that traipsed the C2C in the summer of 2004; we stayed in a different B&B every night, which I think is a rather civilized way to do it.  (It should be noted that my father-in-law has ambled the 192 miles at least twice, and my mother-in-law once.  We followed in fine footsteps!)  If you would like more information about the walk, you can start at this link - or simply go on the web!

And so it is that we often take visitors on short sections of the C2C, especially those that are picturesque and within reach of my-in-laws' house.  Or in this case, a short drive from our B&B in Keswick (see previous posts about this trip to the UK - last summer - with my sister and her husband - Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9) .

Middle left: a swimming hole that has hosted our kids on more than one

occasion, as well as one of my nephews

Bottom: Spousal Unit communing with a dry stone wall

On the same day as our visit to Rosthwaite, we sauntered 4.5 miles along the fern-and-moss festooned shores of Buttermere, a scenic lake also found in the Lake District.  We have brought other family guests here, given that the route around the lake is fairly flat, and offers views of fells in every direction - notably the High Stile to the southwest, Robinson to the northeast, Fleetwith Pike and Haystacks to the southeast and Grassmoor to the northwest.

When we are hiking in Montana, Spousal Unit and I often quip "Where is the pub?  Where is the tea shop?" which springs from the quintessential English walk, which always has a tea shop or a pub (or both) at the midpoint of the hike, and certainly at the end.  This day, I was not disappointed when we encountered an ice cream truck halfway through our walk.  I just had to have a '99'.  

The origins of this name for a scoop of vanilla with an inserted flake of chocolate are uncertain.  According to Wikipedia,  one claim has it coined in Portobello, Scotland when Stephen Arcari, a shopkeeper at 99 Portobello High Street, would break a large "Flake" in half and stick it in an ice cream.  Hence the name originated with the address.

Another possibility - Italian ice cream sellers were honoring the final wave of conscripts from the First World War, born in 1899 and referred to as the Boys of '99.  The chocolate flake may have reminded them of the Alpine Regiment's hat, with a long dark feather cocked at an angle.

The Cadbury website says the reason behind the name has been 'lost in the mists of time,' although it also repeats an article from an old Cadbury works paper, which states the name came from the guard of an Italian king which consisted of 99 men, and subsequently "anything really special or first class was known as 
'99' ".  

Well, then - our outing in Rosthwaite and Buttermere was '99', don't you think?

Linking to:

All Seasons

Mosaic Monday

Nature Notes

Our World Tuesday

Sharon's Photo Souvenirs

Skywatch Friday

Wednesday Around the World