How tall is a Liver Bird?

Well, I suspect that is a question you weren’t expecting, and I’m not sure it was the first thing on my mind when we visited the Royal Liver Bird 360 attraction on our visit to Liverpool a few years back. But it is a really good question, and one that crosses your mind the closer you get to them. And if you’re curious, it’s 18 foot - with a wingspan of 24 foot. To put that into perspective a double decker bus is 14 ft 4” - so quite big, is a good answer.

But before we get to that, the building is pretty spectacular, and architecturally important. It’s perfectly symmetrical with entrances on all four sides, and its pioneering use of reinforced concrete earns it its place in architectural studies, but it’s also pretty special to look at. It cost £621,000 to build which is estimated to be the equivalent of around 58 million today.

And know you know how tall a Liver Bird is, do you know their names?

These questions, all perfectly reasonable when you stop and think, are coming thick and fast now aren’t they? I suspect more of you might know the answer to this one, but they’re called Bella and Bertie. The legend is that they face away from each other as if they were to ever to mate and fly away the city would cease to exist. There’s another story though, and that’s that Bella looks out to sea watching for returning seamen, while Bertie looks inward into the city making sure the pubs are open.

We started in the basement, and up we went. Firstly by a lift, then some stairs - stopping part way up to take in the views and see where we were heading next, and walking through an industrial part of the building which had a ship-like feel - not altogether surprising for a port city.

We were taken outside for a look at how far we’d got, and to look at the clocks. There’s four on the towers, pointing in the four cardinal directions. The clocks were started on 22 June 1911 at 1.40pm - the precise time George V was crowned, and became known as the Great George Liver Clocks.

Each of the clock faces are all 25ft in diameter, which is larger than that of Big Ben so they’re also the largest electronically driven clocks in the UK.

Back inside, there was time for some arty-farty shots - but it also shows how the building decor changed now that we’re in more public areas.

And still we went up, and boy was it worth it.

The views - all round - are amazing, and when you reach the top you realise why this is named the 360 experience, it really is. And despite the glorious weather for our visit on a sunny July day - it’s a windy experience too, but totally worth it.

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?

A whistle stop of a week in the Lakes

This week I’ve used the last of my 2020 leave which I carried over into 2021 and rather appropriately they have been spent on a rearranged 2020 holiday. We’ve been in a cottage near Cartmel which we should have been in after a family wedding at the end of May. The family wedding didn’t happen thanks to Covid and has been rearranged for next May instead, and we postponed our holiday by a year and a week adjusting it away from the bank holiday weekend and towards our wedding anniversary. It’s a week we tend to go away, and have done in the majority of the previous fourteen years, pandemics permitting.

It’s a long drive though from South London. But worth it. We packed a lot in to our four night stay, and I’ll be sharing more I’m sure, but in the meantime here’s a quick run through of our week - hang on to your hats.

THAT FIRST CUPPA AFTER A LONG DRIVE

OUR VIEW FROM THE COTTAGE

After that first cuppa we set out on foot to get our bearings. Walking through the country lanes to the the nearest village, wondering what would greet us around the corner, unlike the sheep you climbed the wall for a better view. As you do.

ERM, A SHEEP ON A WALL

For our first full day we headed off to Levens Hall as the gardens and its topiary had been recommended. The hall wasn’t open but I was intrigued by the different designs of the windows - each on this side of the hall was different.

The gardens were full of topiary and colour and it was good to explore the different zones before heading on towards Sizergh Castle.

The ‘battlement’ style walls were to become a feature of this trip, these at Sizergh were the first we saw. The gardens were extensive and warm, and I’ve many photos.

Our other mission was to stock up with some supplies. The fall back plan was to head to the Sainsbury’s in Kendal but we didn’t need that as the Sizergh Barn Farm Shop had everything we needed. It was here that we bought some raw milk from a vending machine - quite an experience, and to be honest it tasted great even though it was whole milk rather than our usual semi-skimmed. I’d definitely buy it again, and not just for the novelty factor.

The forecast for the next day was less promising so we invoked our first museum visit. We booked online for the Lakeland Motor Museum which also has the exhibition dedicated to Malcom and Donald Campbell’s record breaking attempts, memorabilia and machines. But there was much more there than that and many memory prompts for both MOH and I. They packed a lot into a relatively small space, and it’s definitely worth a visit, even if you don’t think it’s your thing.

For lunch we headed over to Ambleside and ate alongside the lake spending a fair amount of time people watching - another fascinating way to pass the time.

On our way back our plan was to stop off in Cartmel and buy some sticky toffee pudding from the shop where it originated. Parking was tricky so we came back to the cottage and walked back in. Later that evening we headed back into Cartmel for dinner at Rogan & Co - I started with a nasturtium negroni, which was fab - as was the whole meal. It’s just as well though that our step count was just short of 19,000 steps that day.

A passing comment from our hosts saw us head to another museum on Thursday - this time the pencil museum. Yes, who knew? It was as fascinating as the motor museum, but for entirely different reasons. And obviously, there were many pencils - though less when we left as I treated myself to 48 soft colour pencils in a lovely wooden box which are absolutely beautiful.

It was still relatively early so we pulled into one of the viewpoints and booked tickets to Holker Hall. This was one of the places I’d earmarked to visit before we left London, but when I looked earlier in the week it appeared fully booked. It turns out I looked at house and garden tickets, but there were still garden tickets left, and what’s better it’s an RHS partner garden and so my entry was covered by that.

It was a relatively small garden, though we didn’t explore the parkland to its full potential, but again there was a lot to see including the sundial which is 5ft in diameter and the cascade which Neptune proudly sat at the top of.

Thursday night was stone-baked pizza night in the village and so we ordered pizzas heading down to collect them before relaxing, after finishing the packing, in the private hot tub, with its window view of the countryside beyond.

We’ve not quite had the temperatures that London has experienced, but for the Lakes we’ve been assured this is good weather - and it’s been lovely. We’ll be back in London before we know it, and back to work too. Our next break isn’t until July, and that’s a weekend a couple of hours away from us, and another hot tub - but more on that another day.