Quick ... Sun's out, get in the Garden!

Hi there everyone 🌞

Having been so lucky with the weather for our week up in The Lakes I don’t suppose we should really complain that it seems to have been raining pretty much non stop since we got home

I also seem to have been struck down with a bit of a cold, which has left me feeling a bit lethargic and not really in the mood for anything other than sitting in the comfy chair with a bit of gentle appliqué.
That is until yesterday morning and I couldn't quite believe it but kind of like in the words of Buddy Holly singing Raining in my Heart ...

It was a case of quick, the sun's out, let’s get outside ... before we miss it ...

We needn’t have worried, it turned out to be gloriously bright, sunny and even warm for pretty much all day. We were so glad to have got to see our magnolia in all her glory. She was a wedding present and will be 9 years old this year. We'd been beginning to think she would have flowered and dropped with no sign of any sunshine whatsoever.

There are a few other bright colours adding just a little bit of that zing of Spring ...
Whilst our list of things to do in the garden is seemingly endless we managed to make a gentle start on some of the things that we have really been wanting to get done.

There was a last bit of pruning and tidying up of the late autumn perennials ...
Our main focus was to be on potting and sowing, but there was a new greenhouse to be built first ...

... which went up nice and easily ...

So it was time to get potting ...
All of the foraged flower seeds picked up on our travels last year, cosmos, zinnias and sunflowers, free with Gardeners world magazine and French beans, moneymaker tomatoes and little gem lettuce. I do so hope we haven't left it too late.

In no time at all our new greenhouse was looking a lot more at home ...
We also made a very token start on digging out some of the bluebells from the bottom border, working towards our goal of leveling it all the way across ...

We ended up  having a cheese on toast lunch in the sunshine, where we were visited by a new friend, who we have decided to call 'Ginge' ... for obvious reasons ...

By the time we packed up and came in it was gone 3pm and we were both really pleased with how we'd got on ... and the sky? Well, it still looked like this ...

Perhaps Spring is finally here 😁😁😁

Mirehouse Gardens in the Spring

Hi there everyone

I've got another post from last week's holiday in the Lake District for you today.

Sunday was the first full day of our holiday and considering we had put the clocks forward we were up fairly early by our normal standards.

Though the weather was predicted to get a bit wet and gloomy later in the week Sunday was a glorious day. We decided to make the most of it and headed for Mirehouse, which was literally five minutes up the road from Sale View.

We parked up in the car park opposite the house, which unfortunately for us didn't open until 30 March, the day we go home, but we were looking forward to exploring the grounds and having another walk down to St Bega's Church.

Even with the house being shut there was still plenty to see and we took the path through Mirehouse Wood, which would take us to the Bee Garden.

We gave ourselves a bit of a photography challenge for our visit ... we were looking for signs of Spring so it was a slow walk that we took as there was plenty to see on the way ...

Eventually we found ourselves at the Bee Garden ...

... where there were plenty more signs of Spring, though we didn't get to see any bees ...

From the Bee Garden we retraced our steps back to the main drive and headed left towards the house  which appeared in front of us as we rounded the bend ...

I think it would be fair to say that the views across the parkland to the lake and the hills beyond was pretty impressive ...

We wandered round the back of the house, which looked lovely in the bright sunshine and we would loved to have been able to explore inside ...

We had a quick wander around the Poetry Walk before heading back round to the front of the house ...

... where we followed the 'living wall' which we were both very taken with, down towards the open parkland ...

At the moment the parkland is home to some substantial works being carried out by United Utilities, who are in the process of installing 30km of twin water pipelines to supply drinking water from from Thirlmere across West Cumbria.

Whilst this work is obviously having an impact on the open countryside at the moment, care is being taken to ensure that footpaths are still accessible and it was actually quite fascinating seeing the size of the undertaking up close and personal ... 

Once past the pipeline works the views are more what you would normally expect from this part of the countryside at this time of year ...

We made our way back down to St Bega's Church, where we made the most of the weather and spent a fair while retaking our photographs from the evening before ...

We followed the lakeside walk back, which took us past The Tennyson Theatre & Pier and through Catstocks Wood ...
... where we saw plenty more signs of Spring ...
... before coming out right on the edge of the lake ...
From here the path took us away from the lake and back uphill through Crosthwaite Wood, back into Mirehouse Wood and the end of our walk.

It was but a short walk across the road to the Old Sawmill Tea Room for a very welcome pitstop before heading back to Sale Fell, where we explored the delights of the vintage book shelf and found all sorts, but I will tell you more about that in another post.

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We decided that it would be the seaside tomorrow if the weather was still good 🌞

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Back from The Lakes

Hi there everyone

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I hope you are all enjoying the Easter weekend, whether you be out and about or just generally making the most of a long weekend at home.

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We are just back from our first holiday of the year up in The Lake District and this was the view that we have been waking up to every morning for the last week.After what felt like a really busy week at home with a trip to London, school governor commitments, doctors appointments, finishing off the spring cleaning, planting our fruit trees, a 21st birthday celebration and all the usual washing, ironing, cleaning and shopping, Martin and I were both more than ready for our first getaway of the year.

We were off to stay in Sale Fell, a cottage looking like it has come straight out of a fairytale, overlooking Bassenthwaite Lake, the only actual lake in the Lake District, as technically speaking the rest are all either waters, meres or tarns.We loaded up the car as usual, with everything but the kitchen sink, so we were ready for every eventuality and type of weather, and set off.

The M6 was a bit of a nightmare, but with a bit of a detour we eventually made it to Tebay Services, our favourite regular pit stop on this journey when travelling up to that there North.It’s a lot prettier than your average motorway services, feeling as though it is set right amongst the wilds of the countryside, with a restaurant serving proper food, fabulous cake and overlooking a duck pond teeming with ducks.

We were soon back on the road and arrived at Sale Fell just after 4pm to be greeted by the owner and bright blue skies and sunshine. The cottage is part of the old Mansion House, which has been divided into four separate dwellings and Sale Fell has only been available as a holiday let since the late summer of 2017. I will do a fuller review of the cottage for you in separate post.

It looked just lovely and we couldn’t wait to see inside. We weren’t disappointed, the place had been really well renovated, retaining lots of interesting features and quirky objects, whilst including lots of modern day comforts. It was really roomy, flooded with light and spotlessly clean.

We unloaded the car but didn’t feel like unpacking and decided to head back up the lane to a footpath that led to St Bega’s Church, which is described as being one of the most beautifully suited churches in the country. We both really wanted to see it in good weather and as the forecast during our stay was very mixed we thought we’d make the most of the evening sunshine.

It was a nice steady .75 mile walk each way and it was definitely worth it. The scenery looked pretty spectacular in the evening sunshine ...

... and St Bega's really is a beautiful little church in a glorious spot, feeling pretty much in the middle of nowhere, right on the edge of the lake ...

As the sun was so low in the sky our photos didn’t really do it justice, though it still looked lovely from all angles ...

The views down to the lake were pretty good too ...

Whilst it felt as though we were in the middle of nowhere, the church is actually situated in the grounds of the historic Mirehouse, somewhere we were definitely planning on visit later in our holiday. Looking back we could see the house from the church ...

The church is always open so we had a quick look round inside before we thought we ought to be heading back ...

By the time we got back to Sale Fell, we were both shattered. We managed to get all unpacked and settled in before flaking out in front of the TV for the rest of the first evening of, what was already looking like it was going to be a good week’s break 😀

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