Mr Crisp's 2010 (with a bit of 2009).

Pics and Vids from Sudbury Hall, London, Brighton, Alton Towers, Edguy at The Rescue Rooms, Greg's Party, visiting Michael (my own brother), Camping in the Lake District, London Film and Comic Con and of course BOA 2010.
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Walney, Barrow in Furness
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#timontour: Western Lakes - Update #6

Sixth update from #timontour: Westernlakes 2011 from camping place after descending from Scafell Pike. See more at: blog.tdobson.net

Scott camping on a beach with his dad
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The Langdale Pikes

A bit of a queer old day. We left New Dungeon Ghyll in bright sunshine which quickly gave way to fog. This was followed by periods of rain. The full lakeland experience!! When it wasn't raining we had some superb views. A great day's walking.
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showing the top of the line nikon bino
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Holidays in the Lake District fun for kids and grownups alike

Holidaying in Cumbria’s Lake District is a dream come true for most families, the quiet, rural and beautiful location in the heart of Cumbria in the centre of the UK is surrounded on all sides by green fields, forests, lakes and mountain ranges. Enjoying your family holiday time in the Lake District couldn’t be easier with the range of accommodation on offer from the local community, with hotels lining the high streets of the major towns in Cumbria’s Lake District, there are bed and breakfasts to consider and also a great range of locally run and maintained lake district holiday cottages.

Whatever kind of accommodation you choose for your family in the Lakes, consider highly the holiday cottages on offer in this rural UK location.

Holiday cottages are a great way for a family to rule their won holiday experiences, on arrival you are handed over the keys, shown around the cottage by a member of staff and made sure you are made to feel welcome to the area. Quite often in the Lake District, the holiday cottages which are available to rent are located just out of town or on adjoining farm land. Quite often the tradition location for a cottage is just off a main or side road which would lead you in the one of the towns in the Lake District, below we have included a map of the Lake District and here you can see where the Red Dot is the typical location of a family holiday cottage.

Pike of Blisco from Three Shire Stone 2007

www.trekkingbritain.co.uk presents Pike of Blisco from Three Shire Stone walk from March 2007 all by myself wild camping. Visit the Trekking Britain website for more info on this walk...
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walking from keswick to mt skiddaw, camping overnight, then back around to keswick
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Christmas In The Lake District Idyllic

We've all been warned that the snow is heading this way, it's the middle of November and the bets are being placed for another white Christmas! Will it or won't it? The tips of the Lakeland Mountains are covered with snow, but at such a distance we cannot make out whether the depth is adequate to justify a white Christmas. How does the white Christmas bet system work anyway? Is it based on snow actually falling on this festive day or does it mean to wake up on this day, to draw back your curtains and be greeted with a white feathery like view?
Either way whether this is on or prior to the day there really is nothing better than to wake up on one of the most glorious days known to man, with a crackle of the fire in the background and ever so melting scent of mulled wine seeping through.

The perfect vision, the idyllic dream of waking up on Christmas morning with the greeting of excited children scampering into the bedroom to enthuse you with the same enthralling attitude they have, to jump onto the bed ever so lively while you lie toasty under the feather filled duvet, daring to dip your toe out into the air.

When energy gained and a certain percentage of enthusiasm has been allowed to grasp you, you are then able to take a leisurely stroll into the living quarters where yet again the children ensure you are wide awake by ever so kindly increasing the volume as well as adding musical notes to the unwrapping of their gifts. This is now the time where the mulled wine or bucks fizz comes into play, a large glass of your favourite Christmas tipple first thing in the morning is acceptable on this particular day, besides it's so full of snow out there, there is certainly no way you are willing to take the risk of venturing into the frozen midst of the beautiful Lake District while you can enjoy the comfort of your log fire and the magnificent view on your terrace.

If you are lucky enough to stay in a cottage with an Aga then Christmas dinner is a case of letting the Aga do the work, alternatively you may be also be lucky enough to stay in a Lake District village with restaurants that are open for Christmas day, in which case do ensure it is not far to walk as to make plans for journeys using your vehicle at this time of the year in the Lake District is not a wise idea!

Whatever your plans your Christmas in the Lake District is a sure set winner, there really is no better place to be at this magical time of year with or without children, the Lake and mountainous terrain add further sparkle and the crackling of the fire the smell of the fire fumes that add warmth to the cold night air, brings back all memories of Christmas past, present and for the future.

Corrie basins in the Lake District

One striking feature of corrie basins is the way in which the majority have a north or northeast aspectThings to do in Windermere
. There are obvious exceptions like those which serrate the southern slopes of Blencathra, but taken as a whole a northeast orientation is dominant. It is this preferential development which gives many 66 of the ridges their asymmetrical appearance. No greater contrast of landforms exists than on the opposing sides of Helvellyn or the internally ridge separating Ennerdale and Buttermere.

On the one side are smooth even slopes broken occasionally by rock crags and low precipices while on the other glacial erosion has bitten deeply and successfully to create what has been called 'biscuit topo¬graphy'.

With rock type not exerting any great influence, other explanations have to be sought to account for the preferential northeast aspect. As early as 1917 Enquist noted that the aorries tended to lie on the lee side of a mountain range, that is in relation to the dominant snow bearing wind. More recently Manley has shown that in this situation the wind which blows over the ridge top the helm wind considerably aids snow accumulation on the upper part of the lee slope through the development of a back eddy. The presence of the eddy can often be detected on the waters of a tarn where wavelets move towards the back¬wall of the corrie basin. During the Ice Age thick snow would be likely to accumulate in any hollow on the lee slope, and through the addition of successive layers be ultimately transformed into ice.

In time this ice would gouge out a deeper hollow and ultimately a true corrie basin. Having reached this stage, the rapid build up of snow and ice would bring about increased erosion of the floor of the hollow. Due to the effect of the helm wind, the greatest amount of snow would accumulate on the upper part of the corrie glacier just below the bare upper part of the backwall. Differential loading on the upper surface of the corrie glacier would tend to cause the ice to move in a rotatory manner. With continuous additions at the head and constant depletion at the snout through melting, the rotatory movement could be instrumental in scooping out the floor of the corrie .

Other processes like frost shattering of the bare rocks of the upper part of the backwall and the grinding action of rock debris within the glacier would also contribute to the enlargement of the corrie basin. It follows that if the prevailing snowbearing wind was from the southwest then the northeast facing lee slopes would become the most suitable sites for corrie development. This northeast aspect also happens to be one of minimum isolation so that snow and ice would persist longer here. When the snow had long since disappeared from the upland peaks and plateau tops, some of the deep shadowy hollows would retain their active glaciers. Even today snow patches last until late Mayor early June in situations like the steep northfacing buttress of Great End.

Wordsworth, in his poem Fidelity, mentioned the persistence of snow under the lee of Helvellyn which he had noticed on a walk across to Patterdale in early June. The ice which was so prominent in fashioning the landscape of the central high part of the Lake District also left its mark in the peripheral lowland, though to different effect. Here various ice streams jostled for occupation of the low ground. In addition to the local glaciers fanning out from the mountainous core, a great wall of ice moved in from the Irish Sea and impinged on the western coasts. Passing over the softer rocks of the lowlands, the ice was able to incor¬porate great quantities of sands, clays and rocks which it subsequently deposited on melting. In contrast to the highland area, the glacial landforms of the margins 68 are nearly all associated with deposition rather than erosion.

Railways And Tourism In The Lake District

However, other routes clearly had tourist potential, and the Lakeside and Coniston lines turned increasingly to this source of revenue. The Furness Railway also encouraged the development of select seaside resorts at Seascale and Grange. At Seascale a grandiose design never came to fruition, the location being too remote. However,Grange became quite a success as a retirement resort, although it never took off as a centre for family holidays; it was essentially a genteel seaside version of residential Windermere.

Rail closures began in the 1920s and continued through to 1972 with the final closure of the Penrith to Keswick line. Tourism was not the saviour of the railways, chiefly because the companies did not rise to the challenge it presented. Perhaps if the closures had been postponed only a few years, more lines would have survived, for some of the railways once feared by Wordsworth and Ruskin have come to be revered as tourist attractions in their own right.

If many lines were short-lived, their impact on the landscape was immense; within a few years green fields sprouted mines and quarries, with all their buildings and spoil tips. The arrival of the railways allowed the minerals to be mined and then used in industrial processes; mining villages and industrial hamlets sprang up in the landscape, and some settlements such as Aspatria, Harrington, Frizington and Millom grew into sizeable towns. The established towns such as Maryport and Workington grew as well; Whitehaven by contrast was already a town of 20,000 in 1851, and grew more slowly.

The effects of the railways were complex; they did not always allow rural industries to survive, but agriculture benefitted by being able to send milk, butter, cheese and meat to the industrial towns. They allowed local people to migrate out of the Lakes, whilst allowing other workers to migrate in (notably to Cleator Moor); tourist access was meanwhile dramatically improved. They provided employment both in the construction and the running of the lines, yet their impact was concentrated on the industrial development of the mining areas and the ports, to the detriment of much of the rest of the area; in a few years the whole social and economic pattern of life in the Lake District, and more especially around the Lakeland margins, was radically altered.
Little now remains of many lines; some are neglected and overgrown, rapidly disappearing into the landscape, with their station buildings converted into houses, whilst others have suffered the indignity of having roads built over them (notably the Keswick to Cockermouth line). The wheel has now come full circle, and the brief intervention by the railways in the provision of transport in the Lake District is essentially over.

A Lake District Trip with my Brother

Extended version of a trip to the Lakes with my brother
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Pictures and video from camping trip with friends at Waterside House Camp Site, Pooley Bridge on Lake Ullswater in the Lake District.

Castlerigg Hall Caravan And Camping Site, Keswick. 2002

HAVE YOU TWIGGED THE ACCENT YET DAVID? www.castlerigg.co.uk
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Sharp Edge & Blencathra (Wild Camping) - 9 & 10 April 2011

Wild camping at Scales Tarn beneath Blencathra in the Northern Fells of the Lake District. We set off from Mungrisdale at about 8:10pm, climbing Souther Fell under moonlight before reaching our wild camp location at Scales Tarn about 10:00pm. The following morning we took a similar route to a previous walk, climbing Blencathra via Sharp Edge, then heading to the Bannerdale Crags and Bowscale Fell before descending steeply to Bowscale Tarn before returning back to Mungrisdale. The weather was perfect both days.
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Cave Man - a solo trip to a natural mountain cave

I decided to head to Priest's Hole, a natural cave in the Lake District to spend a few nights reflecting and wild camping in nature. The second night was spent by a lake in a glacier carved valley, sleeping under the stars. It was a thoroughly enjoyable trip full of "being" rather than "doing". I enjoyed cultivated my meditation practice, doing some tai chi and forcing myself to doing nothing. Every year I try to take a solo trip into the wilderness and it never fails to impress on me how important it is to make some time for yourself in a peaceful environment. Being so close to nature inspires thought and ideas which otherwise would remain unthought.
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Do YOU enjoy packing? It's one of my favorite pass-times! If I'm going on holiday or just going camping it's just something that arouses a funny sort of nostalgia inside me and reminds me of home.

Grand Houses In The Lake District

In looking at Large Houses, Small Houses and Cottages we are looking at the evidence in the built landscape of the interaction of social and economic forces as well as those of topography and climate. Different social classes went through similar stages of development in their houses but at different times. Similarly in looking at the agricultural buildings of the farmstead we are seeing another Great Rebuilding reflecting status, albeit of a different sort from that of the domestic buildings. The rebuilding of farm structures tends to be later than domestic structures in the first place, but the benefits of properly planned buildings erected in a permanent fashion went first to the farm buildings of higher status, such as barns and stables, and passed down to those of lower status, such as pigsties and poultry sheds, rather later. Furthermore the buildings show how the tremendous improvement in farming techniques led to a demand for more farm buildings and of even better design and construction than those already provided.

Large Houses, which were occupied by families of some local importance, survive in some form from the late medieval period, are rather more numerous from the sixteenth and seventeenth century, but merge into the category of polite architecture when built in the late eighteenth century and afterwards. The earlier buildings include some real or fanciful provision for defence, but later examples make no such acknowledgement. Large Houses were also farmhouses and substantial ranges of farm buildings, many of nineteenth century date but some of earlier dates, provide a setting for the domestic buildings. Isolated towers are not characteristic of the Lake District. More commonly the early Large House was based on a conventional Tshaped or Hshaped plan with one wing taken up as a tower, battlemented and with walls of defensible thickness, and sometimes, as at Beetham Hall near Milnthorpe and Middleton Hall near Kirby Lonsdale, with stone curtain walls and some simple gatehouse. Even these houses are relatively less numerous than in other parts of Cumbria where closer proximity to raiders and more productive land worth more ambitious raiding made provision for defence more understandable.

The Tshaped Large House plan included a multi-storey wing at right angles to a hall which was open to its roof. The more common Hshaped plan made use of two such wings, one at each end of the open hall. The original central hearth heating the hall has in all cases been replaced by a fireplace: a deep chimney breast boldly projecting from the rear wall of the hall, or, more commonly, a wide stone fireplace backing onto the cross-passage which ran between hall and crosswing. Conventionally there was another passage, running through the lower crosswing and leading to an outside kitchen, but here the passage was vaulted and flanked by vaulted buttery and pantry, an arrangement which may be seen at Preston Patrick Hall. As elsewhere in the country the hall was usually modified by the insertion of an intermediate floor in the late sixteenth or the seventeenth century and the great chamber so formed was made more modern and more comfortable by the provision of a plaster ceiling which, as at Yanwath Hall near Penrith, conceals the magnificent carpentry of a medieval roof.

Celebrating the Royal Wedding in the Lake District

There are lots of celebrations being held throughout the Lake District to celebrate the Royal Wedding, so if you are staying at one of the many self catering cottages in the Lake District you don't need to worry that you'll risk missing the action on the big day.

For visitors staying in Keswick cottages, there will be a big screen in Keswick Market Square, showing the entire wedding.  The whole town, including lots of visitors to the area will be there to watch and enjoy themselves.  You will be able to sample some local produce and the town square will be decorated for the occasion. It should be a lovely day – we're all praying for sunshine!

Muncaster Castle in Eskdale is putting on a Royal Wedding flower festival across the whole of the Royal Wedding Weekend – The bluebell woods at the castle are likely to be at their best, so it really is the perfect time for a visit. 

If you are coming from Eskdale, then you can take the Ravenglass and Eskdale miniature steam railway (aka The la'al Ratty) out to the coast and enjoy their take on the Royal Wedding Cake into the bargain.

For visitors staying in Ullswater Cottages, The Ullswater steamers are marking the Royal Wedding with an evening cruise.  Put on your glad rags and enjoy the sunset (hopefully!) with a glass of champagne and then a couple of hours of dancing.

Lord and Lady Cavendish won't be there to meet you, as they will be at the Wedding itself (Lady Cav is an old school chum of Camilla of course) but at Holker Hall in the Southern Lake District there is a day of celebrations.  Holker Hall is a great day out and with entertainment for all of the family and the wedding itself shown on a big screen, it should be brilliant.

Lots of hotels in the Lake District are putting on Champagne Teas and The Skiddaw Hotel in Keswick and the Borrowdale Hotel and the Lodore Falls Hotel in Borrowdale will have wedding cake too. 

The Royal Oak in Braithwaite will be showing the wedding on large screens from 11am.  There will be a Royal Wedding themed Champagne tea in the afternoon and then a buffet, live Jazz and Fireworks in the evening.

The Wheatsheaf in Lorton is within easy reach of cottages in the Loweswater area and also just 15 minutes drive from Keswick and Cockermouth.  There are drinks in the morning and then the wedding will be shown during the afternoon.  (For those that aren't so keen on the wedding itself, there will be football on the pub field between 3 and 4pm!)  There will be kids sports and activities during the rest of the afternoon and a Tatie Pot will be served at 6pm.

With all of these celebrations happening all over the area staying in Lake District cottages is surely the only way forward. Rumour has it Kate and Will's will be honeymooning in one!

Fingers crossed for sunshine and a great day of celebration.  If the wedding isn't your thing, then you've no cause for complaint as the fells will probably be deserted (although I do know of several people who are going to be having a celebratory picnic on the top of Scafell and you can probably watch the whole wedding from the summit on your iphone!).

Happy Campers Episode 1

Renault TV brings you Happy Campers where a suburban family of gadget addicts leave their comfortable home and go deep into the wilds to experience 2 nights of living under canvas. They will learn to make fire, build a boat and skin a rabbit, all in a days work in the great outdoors! Renault TV can be found online at www.renault.tv or on your telly box at Sky channel 883 and Freesat channel 651.
Video Rating: 5 / 5

John 'Lofty' Wiseman - PLAN - Aquisition - At The Bushcraft Show No.3

John 'Lofty' Wiseman speaks to visitors at The Bushcraft Show www.thebushcraftshow.co.uk No.3 in the series. Lofty reveals the importance of AQUISITION as part of PLAN

Priest's Hole - 2 & 3 July 2011

A Saturday night out in Priest's Hole, a cave on Dove Crag in the Lake District.