Didn't we have a lovely day....?

Whilst it was the Easter Holidays and hubby and I were both off work we had our usual optimistic plans about how we were going to while away the long sunny days.  The weather, however, predictably, scuppered our plans. It was typically rubbish - pouring rain, gloomy, leaden skies, freezing cold, so all our plans about going away camping in our shiny new tent have had to be put on hold till the day when the sun shines, we are not actually at work/school, and we can hurriedly pile everything into our new trailer (yet to be bought) and do an emegency few days away.  Still, being indoors with children for any length of time, when the PS3 is restricted (I was very tempted to backtrack on this), there's nothing on TV, and anyway that is also restricted (what was I thinking?)is a little frazzling on the nerves; we tried doing indoor kitchen experiements (not altogether successfully), we did papier mache, we read stories, we played games, but my little darling was beginning to act more like a caged tiger.  It's time to release the beast and let him run free, but that flippin weather.... Why don't we live in the South of France, life would be so much simpler. 

In a valiant attempt to ignore the dark omenous skies and predictably gloom filled weather forecast, we decided that come what may, we would have A Day Out.  Where to go?  Now, we are a family that likes a Day Out, so we have visited anywhere within easy driving distance time and again. So we pore over the internet and our Great Britain books to try to find somewhere different not too far away.  We end up plumping for the Lake District as so often we do.  I don't know why we go through the torture of trying to think of somewhere new to be honest.  We love the Lake District, it is not very far from where we live, so we decided that it would be northwards on the M6 that we would go.  Instead of our usual haunts - the South Lakes area around Windermere, Bowness, Ambleside and Hawkshead - we decided to go to Grange over Sands and Cartmel.  We have visited these towns many times before, I had friends who lived in Cartmel and Grange years ago, but we haven't been for a while.  We left the house as the heavens opened, it was pouring, and continued in this vein until we were almost there.  I could have been happier.  When we arrived and parked up in Grange though, a tiny miracle happened. The sun was shining, it wasn't too cold and suddenly my world and my mood seemed a lot brighter.  The weather has a very profound effect on my mood I've noticed, so Husband, if  you read this, you know what to do if you want a constantly happy and less grumpy wife - South of France and emigrate are the words to keep in mind. 

Anyway, I felt a fabulous sense of being away from it all, in beautiful surroundings, and best of all, the caged tiger was in his glory as we released him onto the good people of Grange - running, running, always running, laughing and happy.  He's never this happy on the PS3 I'm pleased to note.

We walked down a very steep hill from the car park to the town, the views from here are fabulous and in the sun, we could well have been in the south of France!  The walk took us through the Community Orchard. What a fabulous idea. A Community Orchard.  Anyone seemingly can come in and pick an apple from several British varieties. More towns and villages should have one of these. Orchards sound so very British don't they? Conjuring up visions of big country houses, countryside, picnics, and lashings of ginger beer, as Enid Blyton would have it, with huge baskets and plaid rugs, wonderful.  An idealised vision of the British countryside and why not?

My son saw an ice-cream shop and pestered and pestered. So, husband and I got ourselves the most emornous vanilla slice from a wonderful bake shop next door - apparantly one of Rick Stein's Food Heroes,  son got his ice-cream and we crossed the road to the small  ornamental park lake where we sat in beautiful sunshine gorging ourselves on our sweet treats. We then walked along the coastal path - son and hubby ran, of course.  The views across Morecambe Bay are quite spectacular and the sun on my face, the away-from-the-rat-race feeling was just so relaxing and energising.  Until we realised our time on the carpark was up and we had to revert to rushing mode for a little while as we climbed back up the hill.

From here we decided to go to Cartmel via a little detour to the village of Flookborough.  Flookborough isn't the picture postcard village you imagine when thinking of the Lake District.  It is just a little village, with pub, square and residents, not tourists.  We went there because a good few years ago we almost bought a little barn on the high street to renovate and we wanted to see what had happened to it.  Having seen 'our barn', we drove to Cartmel. 

Cartmel is a picturesque Lakeland village with a village square surrounded by shops, a couple of pubs and the shop from where the famous Cartmel Sticky Toffee pudding hails.  I think it was this very pudding that really put Cartmel on the map and set it on the road to being what it is today - a bit chi-chi, a village somewhat overtaken by stockbroker-belt types for weekends in the country, with up-market cheese and artisan bread shops.  The pubs are gastro-pubs, there is a Michelin Star restaurant in L'Enclume, and Range Rovers and Audis abound.  Cartmel also has a racecourse on the outskirts of the village which hosts a bi-annual meet - a real country racing affair and well worth a visit - bring a picnic, and have a great day parked on the course, watch a bit of racing, maybe a little flutter in the fresh, invigorating Lakeland air.  Cartmel has a special atmosphere and the magnificent Priory - seemingly way too large for the tiny village - makes it quite magical.  We had a drink sitting outside a pub in the glorious sunshine, we had a wander down the riverbank, we bought cheese and bread from the afore-mentioned shops but were too late for the Sticky Toffee pudding shop more's the pity.  We ate in the pub and felt thoroughly content with our day.  We returned home tired but a great outdoors, fresh air tired, and happy.  A lovely day out. (The reason it has taken me so long to get this post published is because I wanted to include some photographs, but I have been unable to download - took them on my phone as forgot my camera and can't find cable...)