Blogs from Keswick, Cumbria, England, United Kingdom, Europe

Pleasant drive from north Wales to Keswick, which is in the "Lakes" (and yes it rained). English make a big deal of the lakes and "mountains" (highest is 3200 feet), but gosh the green grass filled with sheep driving north was quite a treat. If you or I saw the intensity of green our comment is "photoshopped"; nope it's actually that color. Yes Doozer, sheep abound, even more abundant than the Cotswolds, but these poor folks have tasty meat, not reared for wool, but their muscles. Bit sad isn't it to kill these pleasant creatures for our palate. Keswick is central to the lakes on the shore of the largest (Derwentwater). Much of the town is constructed of slate that has a greenish hue, quite pretty. However, no one would describe the weather pretty on 28 ... read more

You may have noticed that I am really into my photography and it can sometimes take over the holidays, much to the annoyance of my poor “photography widow” wife, who is actually very patient and tolerant with me. This holiday, however, was just me, on my own, going on a photography workshop in Rannoch Moor in Scotland. I had decided to drive up, so to split the 470 mile journey I stopped for a night in the Lake District. I had always thought that the Lake District was a long, long way north, but it’s actually only half way to Glencoe, where we will be based on the edge of Rannoch Moor. After several miles of signs warning about speed-cameras, I was not far from the Lake District, when I saw a flash of light in ... read more

Day 2.. I After a busy wet and eventful first day in the Lake district and most of the itinerary already done we decided today to headed up to Bassenthwaite Lake, hoping that the flow of the river would be in our favour. Once we had packed our tent and checked no rubbish was left behind we headed out onto the now calm waters and head north. Stopping firstly at the Nichol End Marine for a nosey, we ended up being drawn in by the strong aroma of coffee wafting out, so fuelled up with coffee and Croissants plus the use of their facilities for the usual ablutions. Once we had finished looking round we got back into the kayaks and carried on to the mouth of the northern end of Derwent water and headed up ... read more

Geo: 54.5995, -3.13256 We got and headed out to the west coast of England. It is a beautiful morning, the sun is shining and it is fairly warm. We drove to Workington, but it was an industrial town, so we headed south toward Whitehaven. We found a place by the water and took a few photos. We decided to go to St. Bees Head, which was a few miles down the road. We parked the car and went into a tea shop and bought sandwiches, crisps and water. We then hiked to the top of St. Bees Head and had a little picnic lunch. It was a bit windy, but the sun was out and it was lovely. After our big hike, we drove to Cockermouth to visit that little village. William Wordsworth was born here. ... read more

Geo: 54.5995, -3.13256 First , a story to tell. We stopped at a Shell station to use the restroom and decided to fill the suv with diesel. As I was leaving to go get in the suv I saw a man about 50 years old coming out of the station. He had short cropped hair, about a 2 day growth of beard, a nice pair of earrings and a black and white polka dotted dress with black tights on. I did a double take. He walked to his car and left. I looked inside and no one at the station seemed to care at all. Interesting! We finally arrived in Wigan. We checked into our hotel and they printed out a map to get to the cemetery. I found a curator and he looked up where ... read more