The view from the (hot) tub

We’re staying in the Lake District for this post, and more specifically the hot tub from our cottage stay back in June. I’ve yet to share the cottage interior, and that’s good, but the view from the hot tub was exceptional. Even getting to the hot tub was more unusual. Though it was sited on the back of the cottage, access was by walking around the building.

Though it really wasn’t a hardship.

Remember those stones for later.

How’s that for a gate post? With the blossom on the slate, the traditional stones and the well worn wood, the first time we visited we knew we were in for something special.

We weren’t disappointed. It was a gorgeously private and dramatic space.

With everything you could want - the outdoor shower, and somewhere to hang your robe and towel.

And the view.

A purposefully included (or should that be excluded) window, giving the perfect view of the rock and the stones I shared earlier. And the view up the hill of the field. And completely private, and relaxing.

The ferns against the darkly painted walls though.

And just to show it really is private here’s my best shot at trying to look over the top - and failing!

It’s clear that a lot of thought went into the planning of this space, and it truly paid off.

The home of sticky toffee pudding

Who knew? It’s Cartmel in Cumbria, which just happened to be the closest village to our cottage in the Lake District. Funny how these things happen, hey? And the village shop is where it all happened, and still happens today - and yes, we did stop in and make a purchase.

And the sticky toffee pudding was good. Since we’ve been home we’ve seen the very same sticky toffee puddings in Waitrose, and they may have slipped into my shopping basket! If you’re looking for them you’ll recognise the Cartmel lettering from the photo above.

But even without the sticky toffee pudding history, the village was picturesque - but first join me on a walk to the village.

It wasn’t a long walk into the village, but as soon as you could spot the race course you knew you weren’t far off.

It was a lovely picturesque village, full of cottages, character and views.

On the outskirts of the village was the village lock up. Lock ups date from the 18th or 19th centuries when rural communities struggled to police burglaries, drunkenness and the stealing of livestock. These were built as places of temporary detention for rogues, drunks and miscreants until they could be brought before the area magistrate. This building fell out of use in the second half of the 19th century, and was awarded listed status in 1970. More recently, in 2018, the upper storey was added and it was repurposed as holiday accommodation.

But it wasn’t just the sticky toffee of Cartmel that we got to taste. We also tried its beer - also good, and ate at Simon Rogan’s Rogan & Co, the more relaxed of his restaurants in the village. This was the menu.

My cocktail was pretty special too, complete with nasturtium leaves.

We spotted this adventurous sheep on one of our walks back, perfectly happy grazing on the top of a wall. Like you do.

Views of Sizergh Castle

This was close to our cottage in the Lake District, and was one of the gardens on my Visit Seven in 2020 but what with our plans changing because of Covid, it wasn’t until this year that we made it to our rearranged 2020 holiday. Sizergh is an ancient Scandinavian name meaning ‘summer pasture or dairy farm’ and from our first view that’s a fancy dairy farm.

The whole place is impressive, and I was quickly distracted by the plants growing in the wall and then just as quickly distracted by the typical ‘castle’ style wall. I’m easily pleased. After this we headed up into the stumpery which led to the limestone rock garden.

The honeysuckle here was basking in the sun, unlike the tree fern in the next picture which seemed to be relishing the spray of the hose. I’ve many pictures from this part of the garden, but I’ll save those for another day.

As we walked through the garden the castle kept showing itself and it looked great with the garden in the foreground.

Once we’d walked almost every path at least once in that section of the garden we made our way towards the building we’d spotted from various vistas around the garden. The steps up with their lichen and fleabane were another draw along the way.

But turning round to see the water lily filled water gardens was another spectacular view, this time complete with the scent of the honeysuckle.

As we walked down to see more the walled gate on the left caught my eye, and looked a little odd.

We headed down and along and enjoyed the views of the countryside heading towards the tall gates we could see at the end.

They looked grand, but when we got closer we could see they were made of wood rather than iron, and behind them were rows of yew pyramids - I’m not sure what I was expecting, but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t this. Having come from Levens Hall, I was pleased to notch up my second topiary spot of the day.

And looking back towards the castle, the views were just as impressive. You really can’t beat a castle, can you?