CATS EYES REMOVED and other new signs and words

TUESDAY AUGUST 30

We drive North toward the Lake District mostly on main roads.  “Don’t you dare pass that truck until I get my camera,” I say loudly and with excitement to Sally.  Fortunately she laughs.  A PIEROGI truck!  Poles and Ukrainians love that stuff.  I grew up on pierogi!

Next to the numerous road works are signs saying “Free Recovery.  Await Rescue.”  In the bathroom at a large, and quite nice, highway stop is a sign asking for toilet twins.  

 We arrive in the beautiful Lake District with relief.  In Kendal, some colorful locals direct us toward the restaurant.  A truck promises I can have my cake and drink it.  We walk past Blind Beck.  A “beck” is a stream.

 After a mighty fine spiced lamb and apricot tagine, we head to our home-away-from-home in Windermere.  Judy’s friends, Eileen and Richard, will return from their travels Friday but meanwhile we are enjoying their three large Maine coon cats, beautiful home and outstanding landscape.

 

 WEDNESDAY 

We scout out Windermere town center and walk all the way down to the lake where the community is called variously Bonus and Bone Ass, but spelled Bowness.  We spend a few hours on the patio of Macdonald Old English Hotel, watching boats and clouds cross over Lake Windermere.   I finally eat sticky toffee pudding which I’d seen everywhere in Ireland but learn it was invented up here.  Full of dates and spicy flavor and gooey.   

Shop on the Main Road to the Lake

Lake Windermere As We Eat Lunch

 When we walk “home” we see many painted sheep, including this one in St. Mary’s Church lawn.  We’ve got loads of bulldogs in Athens, created by artists and sold for charity.  I prefer the sheep.   Before dusk I walk by the beck behind "our" house.

 

 THURSDAY SEPT 1

We join a group of international tourists on a Mountain Goat tour.  Folks from Israel, Japan, Australia and the United States.   Stopping at Grasmere, we see Wordsworth’s old stomping grounds including his burial ground.  And stop in at the gingerbread shop owned and baked by the same folks for over 30 years.  Jane tells us that only 10% of the Lake District are permanent residents and that over 50% of the economy is based on tourism. 

We see all ten lakes in the Lake District (800 square miles) on this day-long Mountain Goat tour.  Jane is a real pro, negotiating skinny mountain roads with barely enough space for oncoming traffic.  We see signs such as “Badger Crossing” and “Red Squirrel Crossing.”  Red squirrels were almost extinct in the U.K. but thanks to some serious conservation efforts, they are coming back.  The red guys are much less assertive than the gray ones.

The fells (mountains) have purple heather on their tops but the bottoms are so very green because there is a great deal of rain.  Sometimes nature goes nuts and the floods are highly damaging to waterways, bridges, and houses.  Two years ago it was such a mess that some areas are just now being rebuilt.  Today we are very lucky because it is mostly sunny.

Repairing the Two-Year Old Damage to the Beck and Bridge Area

Dry stone walls are common.  They are centuries old but farmers have learned to repair them when needed.  They are actually two walls built back-to-back on top of very large stones which have been laid first in a trench.  Several layers of stones are carefully placed strategically upon each other, interspersed with some flat stones which bridge the gap between the two walls, strengthening the finished product.  


Before a one-hour boat trip on Derwentwater, Jane warns:  “Do not get off the boat until you come back to this dock.  If you get off I cannot come for you.”  Tempting, though, as we see many hikers get off/on to walk the island trails.  But we comply and return, especially because it is time for lunch in Keswick. 

About Six Dogs Take the Boat Trip

Heather Topped Hills in the Back

Gulls Await Our Return

Every third person has a dog, which they bring into pubs and just about anywhere else.  Every third store is for hikers, boaters, swimmers and every other outdoor sport. 

At Surprise View (owned by the National Trust), we avoid the sudden drop-off.  Wildflowers are nearby.  Microstegia (we’ve got it in Georgia also) is becoming a real pest but worse yet is bracken -- a fern -- which is taking over everything.  Jane is unaware of any effort to remove it.  Rhododendron can also be a pest.

We see lots of hikers walking on cement paths and many even on the actual narrow road.  Hair-raising, and it reminds me of my death-defying walk in Letterfrack.  Presumably many more hikers are somewhere on the hillsides and woods.  Bikers cycle on these same narrow roads with two-way traffic!
 

I just love the sheep.  Can’t see enough of them.  Jane tells us the Herdwick sheep start off all black, become brown and mixed, and then white as they age but they always have white faces.   They are especially hardy for difficult winters up in the snowy, craggy fells.   Beatrix Potter was a leading force in preventing them from becoming extinct by buying up working sheep farms for the National Trust.  She insisted that the farmers would continue to own their land and take care of the sheep.   (There are now about 300 farming families.)

Why were the Herwick sheep nearly extinct?  Because they normally have only one lamb whereas another type of local sheep have twins.  We see sheep on hillsides and along the street, nibbling away.  Jane explains that sheep are “hefted” so they can roam free on the fells.  Hefting means mother sheep teach their lambs for generations which land is “theirs” so fences are not needed.

 We see yet another lake and a waterfall in an extremely deep valley.  Landscape drama is everywhere!

 At Castlerigg (Rigg = ridge) we see a stone circle built by a prehistoric farming community 4,500 years ago.  No one knows the meaning of this construction.

The lichen is probably not 4,500 years old.

This little guy is escaping to the meadow.

 Jane stops to see why cars are parked along the highway looking into a valley.  It is a test in preparation for a sheep dog contest.  Owners with binoculars are watching their dogs.   Some roads are so very narrow that oncoming vehicles have to back up so our van can pass.  

See the Dogs Way Down There?

 Outside Windermere we see an unbelievably grotesque sign:  Cats Eyes Removed.  Jane explains that there are median indicators on the roads which reflect headlights at night and look like cats’ eyes.  In this bit of roadway, they’ve been removed.  Still, I can’t stop seeing eye-less cats.

Tomorrow Sally and I will go on the Number One hike of the “Ten Best Hikes in the Lake District” so we go to bed early.

Hope you will post a comment below or, if you are unable to do so, please comment to my email at rwoodel.woodel@gmail.  It is so nice hearing from you while I am on the road.