The Lake District - Snow

You probably realise by now, that if there's any sign of snow, we break out the camera. Well luckily for us, the snow fell on our second day in the Lakes... not great weather for sight-seeing, but it beats the rain at least.

Let's start with a bit of snowy scenery






That's a pub through the trees, called the Alfred Wainwright. He's actually quite famous in these parts and there's documentaries about him on the BBC all the time - Google him!



More cold sheep


This is the pub where we had lunch. It was nestled under a group of fells called the Langdale Pikes, which are apparently quite spectacular (when you can actually see them). The pub was nice... open fire, food, beer, pool table.... all the essentials.


This was the pub next door, where we didn't go for lunch, but looks more photogenic.


And here we are at Tarn Hows, which is another lake (there's a lot of them round here actually). The cool thing was it was frozen.




Caiti took this one... we're impressed.


Boat on Lake Windermere... we were testing out the superzoom on the camera when we took this one.


No snow in this one, it's true, but this is where Beatrix Potter lived. The cottage is called Hilltop - quite possibly because it's located on top of a hill


This is the view of the village from her place. Lovely.

The Lake District - Rain

Righto.... let's see how we go posting a few of the pics we took when we were in the Lake District during the February half-term break this year.

We stayed in Windermere which is nice (as are most of the towns round these parts) and cruised about checking out the sights. We didn't have much luck with the weather though.... the sun always seemed to come out just as we were leaving. We did get some snow however (not that snow was particularly unusual last winter!) so this made up for the lack of sun a little. Unfortunately however, the rain and snow meant we didn't get the chance to climb a hill, which is basically a must-do activity in these parts. Next time....

So to start, here some of the rainy photos:


Happy in the Lakes (between showers)


There's lots of stone walls to stand in front of and smile


Curious sheep (and a bit of rain on the camera lens)


This is the pub at Kirkstone Pass, Elevation: forgot (but high enough for snow when it was raining down below).


The pub was closed so we just hung out and took photos


The World Snooker Champs are on at the moment, but Keezee is more of a billiards fan it would seem.


Pub and scenery


Stone bridge and mountains.... typical scenery in these parts


More kids and scenery... we did take a lot of photos


Here we are in the lovely town of Keswick. There's a lot of good pubs here (trust us on that) as well as a chocolate shop that was completely out of control - both in terms of the number of shoppers and the deliciousness of the chocolate. They gave us a flyer to announce they're on the internet now.


Now here we have one of those amazing places we just seem to stumble upon from time to time. This is Castlerigg Stone Circle, which is a prehistoric monument just sitting there unassumedly beside a quiet road just outside Keswick.


Playing on the stones... kids have been playing on these stones for nearly 5000 years - before that, you don't want to know what went on.


By comparison the stone wall behind is only about 300 years old - youngun


Caiti checking out the relative alignment of the mid-winter and equinox stones - so she says!


Church at Hawkshead. This is a nice little village, home of several nice looking pubs and the Beatrix Potter Gallery.


The aforementioned Beatrix Potter Gallery and (one of the) pubs.


This is the boat that takes you over Lake Windermere, to save you driving all the way round.


View from the boat that takes you over Lake Windermere, to save you driving all the way round. A bit cloudy, actually.


We took this one so that we would remember that we went to Grasmere. Wordsworth lived here for a time, we're told. Grasmere is nice too, by the way.... actually, it's lovely.


Church at Grasmere... (we know this is Grasmere because we were reminded in the previous shot). Lovely!

Blackpool

Our current challenge is to try and work our way through the hundreds of photos we took on our recent half-term break when we headed north and checked out the Lake District and York, and a few other places up north.

So to start with, here's a few pics of the famous, historic and delightfully tacky seaside resort town of Blackpool. This is where in Victorian times, the workers from the northern mill-towns used to spend their annual week's holiday, sitting on the beach, enjoying the tram and donkey rides, climbing the Blackpool Tower, eating chips, playing Bingo, riding the Pleasure Beach amusements, and generally chilling out amongst thousands of other like-minded souls. Apparently not much has changed, and although it's a lot quieter in the middle of February, we found it very interesting to see what folk from these parts look for in a holiday resort.



The girls in front of The Big Dipper - the largest and most famous ride in The Pleasure Beach. We can see where the inspiration for Luna Park came from.


A look down the promenade.. the "illuminations" are apparently quite spectacular after dark - not sure about the Dr. Who theme though?


The English love a good pier and the more amusement rides you can squeeze on it the better.



Yes, it's true - we love Blackpool

The trams run along the beachfront during summer. That's the Blackpool Tower you can see in the distance through the winter mist.


Alas, we didn't have time to visit the famous Laughing Donkey Family Bar on the South Pier, but we've no reason to believe it's anything less exciting than it sounds!


The art deco facade of the Pleasure Beach harks back to Blackpool's glory days of the 1920's & 30's; as does the use-by date of the food on display in the takeaway shops along the promenade.

And a quick peek at The Big Dipper...

Snow

You may have heard that we had a bit of snow in the UK around Christmas/New Year time. Well, it's true - the whole country was covered and some places were snowed in for days. In Woodham we were snowed in for 3 days to be exact - assuming "snowed in" translates to school being closed. Getting a big dump of snow is jolly good fun: apart from the snowmen, sledging and snowball fights, there's the thrill of clearing your driveway with an old shovel and the excitement of driving to Tesco's on the slippery roads - scary but fun.

A few people in Aus have been worried it was too cold for us, but to be honest we didn't really felt it much at all - with the notable exceptions of (1) Lucy burying herself in the snow and discovering that it gets into your clothes and melts and (2) Keezee heading off to work in Perth, Scotland (where he was for a few weeks at the time) and noticing the car thermometer read -12. Anyway, enough of all that - as you'd expect we got the camera out and took a few pics.

But for starters, here's a quick vid of the general shenanigans round our way:



Of course there's the mandatory snowman to make...


... but keep an eye on the carrot.


Turned out quite well in the end don't you think?... just kidding!


A snow chair for relaxing.


Out the front of a nice house - not ours alas!



Waiting for the postie.


Caiti managed to sweet-talk her way into borrowing the neighbour's sledge...


... and then get them to drag her round the street all afternoon...


... last seen disappearing into the sunset.