A blog exploring the Lake District's hidden gems and best-kept secrets
It may be a little bit (OK, very) chilly outside at the moment, but as I passed a leaflet rack at the exit to the supermarket yesterday, a very welcome sight was waiting to greet me – the new season’s Cumbria National Garden Scheme guide! I’ve mentioned the National Garden […]
Gardens are one of my favourite things to spend time photographing, so I’ve visited quite a few around the Lake District over the years. I find myself particularly drawn to anything a bit unusual, and so for this post I thought I’d put together a list of some of the […]
I’ve visited Sizergh Castle many, many times over the years, but have stepped inside the castle itself just twice. That’s because there are a whole host of reasons to spend time at Sizergh that not everyone may be aware of (although visiting the castle itself is a good start!). Here […]
One of the very first posts I wrote for the blog was a list of 10 things to do in the Lake District on a rainy day. We do get quite a few wet days here, but, as they say, the Lake District wouldn’t be the Lake District without them! […]
I’ve wanted to visit Mirehouse for a long time, and one beautiful sunny Saturday in July, my gem-hunting companion and I decided we’d risk the busy weekend traffic (which curiously turned out to be almost non-existent that day) and head north to Bassenthwaite. We thoroughly enjoyed our look around Mirehouse, […]
All the signs of spring are fast appearing: spring bulbs are forming carpets of colour by the roadsides, the daffodils are fast appearing, and BBC2’s Gardeners’ World starts its new series tonight – and there’s no more reliable sign than that! I find springtime one of the most exciting times […]
A few years ago I did a photography course over the winter, only to realise that it was the worst time of year I could have chosen. I was rapidly developing an interest in the photography of gardens (sorry about the pun – it was that or ‘growing an interest […]
There’s no doubt that the costs of holidaying anywhere in the UK can easily mount up if you take into account admission prices, food and drink, public transport and parking. If you know where to look though, there are a few things you can be doing to save those pennies […]
It just goes to show – however much you think you know a place, there’s always something new to be discovered! I’ve been visiting Rydal Hall in Rydal, near Grasmere, for several years now, and it’s a gem of a place that not everyone has come across. But what I […]
Recently I wrote about the 25 acres of beautiful award-winning gardens at Holker Hall, and just how much there is to see! This weekend is the Holker Garden Festival, which is held on the parkland next to Holker Hall and is always a fantastic day out. There’s lots to see […]
In a recent post, I visited the National Trust’s Stagshaw Gardens, near Ambleside, for the first time. Stagshaw Gardens is very much a spring woodland garden, with a host of camellias, azaleas and rhododendrons and other woodland planting, and although it was beautiful, it turned out I had visited a […]
If you visit the blog on a regular basis, you’ll know that I love to visit gardens, but despite having been to Holker Hall and the annual Holker Garden Festival on several occasions, I’d never actually visited the gardens until last weekend. I expected the gardens to be good, but […]