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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Recently I wrote about my rediscovery of the Coniston area after not having visited for some years. I enjoyed the scenery from on board the National Trust’s Steam Yacht Gondola so much that I returned just two days later to visit another of Coniston’s local gems, Brantwood. Brantwood is a […]
If, like me, you’re interested in all things Beatrix Potter, the Lingholm Kitchen and Walled Garden at Portinscale – which is on the north-western shore of Derwentwater, near Keswick – should be high on your list of places to visit next time you’re exploring the Lake District. The main house […]
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 […]
You can also see more recent images of the beautiful Stagshaw Gardens in a further post, Pictured in Bloom: Stagshaw Gardens, Ambleside. I’ve been looking forward to visiting Stagshaw Gardens near Ambleside for some time now, and it turns out the garden really is a hidden gem. Owned by the […]
I first visited the gardens at Yewbarrow House several years ago, and they were so good I visited again… and again! The gardens belong to a private house perched on the side of a hill in Grange-over-Sands, and their owner, hotelier Jonathan Denby, opens them up to the public four […]