Big Little Herdy At Ullswater

Some of the family came to stay recently. They now live in Cambridgeshire where it is apparently rather flat and somewhat lacking in Grasmere gingerbread. They were keen to return to the motherland and revisit some of their favourite places (and to stuff themselves silly with gingerbread too…)

As you know, parts of Cumbria were very badly affected by flooding last December (including our lovely Herdy shop in Keswick), which has had a knock-on effect in terms of visitors. Everyone here has been working very hard to recover from the floods and I was keen to reassure the family that the Lake District, and Cumbria in general, is still very much open for business.

Day One

Despite their long journey the day before, the little ones were up early and raring to go…

“Morning Uncle Herdy! Can we go out now please?”

Faces washed and breakfast eaten...

“You can’t get much fresher than eggs laid this morning by the hens next door!”

Then we were on our way to our first destination of the day despite the rain! Fortunately it does not always rain in the Lake District but it does rain a lot! That is why our grass is always so lovely and lush!

“Right, everyone ready? Let’s go!”

Our first stop of the day was Glenridding, where we hopped on board the Western Belle, one of the Ullswater Steamers for a round trip up to Pooley Bridge and back. As you can see the rain disappeared and the sun came out for us!

“Full steam ahead!”

The steamers travel between Glenridding and Pooley Bridge, stopping at Howtown on the way, so you can hop on and off the boat as you like. You can return to your start point on a later sailing, or you can walk back. We opted for the round robin trip as we had other plans for the rest of the day…

Obviously a large sheep travelling by boat is not an everyday occurrence and lots of people stopped to say hello to me. I had my photo taken with these lovely friendly students from Durham Johnston School; I borrowed one of their hats for the photo. Do you think it suits me?

We felt rather peckish when we got back to Glenridding so we headed to the Fellbites Café for lunch. We had delicious falafel burgers for lunch (most definitely not l.a.m.b. burgers…)

“Getting a head start there are you, Imogen? “

After lunch we popped into the Glenridding Gallery to say hello. The gallery was very badly affected by the flooding but Ruth has worked very hard to recover from it and she has done a great job!

“How much is this one, please?”

Ruth has lots of lovely goodies in her shop including an assorted of local wines and spirits…

“Well it would be rude not to try some…”

I put in a bid for this beautiful original painting that was being auctioned to raise money for the restoration of the village.

“Hope I win!”

And said hello to the extended family awaiting adoption from the gallery…

“Hope you all find lovely homes soon!”

We then headed north along the A592 to Pooley Bridge and then along to the gardens at Askham Hall. There is plenty to see in the gardens including this beautiful terrace and this giant Gunnera…

We said hello to the tadpoles in this pond, peeked inside an old caravan, inspected the beetroot in the vegetable garden and even helped out a bit...

There is a lovely café at Askham Hall so after all that gardening we thought a piece of cake and a cup of tea was needed. We had the chocolate and stout cake, which was delicious! We ended our visit with some fun in the children’s play area and returned home tired, but happy.

“Goodnight everyone!”

 

Credits:

Story and photographs by Rebecca Greenwood-Harding.

Fleece and make-up (and lugging duties) by Stuart Greenwood-Harding.