In Praise Of The Lazy Fish

We're back from our week in the Lake District. We had a great time and I want to dedicate today's blog to Mark and Rachel the owners of the wonderful barn conversion that we stayed in for their attention to detail that makes their property -The Lazy Fish- a (pretty big) cut above the competition. 

The scenery is magnificent throughout the whole National Park so few could be disappointed on that front wherever they stayed. And I think that this beauty can lead to an air of complacency amongst those involved in the tourist industry. Even now, in March, the roads were busy at times and we passed scores of places proclaiming "No Vacancies". In such a sellers' market there must be a temptation not to put in too much effort -why bother?

Because, as you can see from this photo (pinched from Lake District Now. Net), the popular sites can be jam packed in high season even on the fell tops. 

Fortunately for their clients, Mark and Rachel have not taken that laissez faire attitude and the property - a few miles outside the pleasant Georgian town of Cockermouth - is an object lesson on how to get things right.

Located less than a mile off the A66, the trunk road that connects the North West to the North East coast, the barn is easy to find and well positioned for discovering Cockermouth, Keswick and many of the beautiful lakes such as Derwent Water and Buttermere, which are just a short drive away.

Uninspiring and unprepossessing from the outside, the building has been converted to the very highest standards and it is these high standards that make the property stand out. Despite its great height, the building is kept at a comfortable temperature by underfloor heating powered by a very green ground source heat pump.

And to boost that comfortable heat there is a magnificent wood burner with an endless supply of logs - at no extra charge. We were greeted with a welcoming hamper containing the usual basics like bread,jam, milk and eggs but with the welcome addition of the not so usual bottle of champagne, chocolate and delicious home made muffins.


As I said at the start of the blog, attention to detail like this makes The Lazy Fish stand out and other little touches that you don't often find in holiday lets include.


A hammock for lazing away those inevitable rainy afternoons.


A wide selection of CDs with a top quality sound system powerful enough to blast away the cobwebs.


Flat screen TV and DVD player with a selection of films to please film buffs like us including some great but lesser known classics such as "Finding Eric" and "Cinema Paradiso"as well as blockbusters like "Avatar".


The option to have an excellent three course dinner served in the cottage. One of the biggest drawbacks of self catering is the catering but Mark enjoys cooking and he and Rachel, who live in the adjacent farm house, cooked for us on three of our seven nights allowing us to enjoy restaurant quality food without the argument about who was going to do the driving. Being able to drink our own quality bottles of wine with our meals without the typical 200% restaurant mark up was an added bonus.


Luxurious bedrooms and bathrooms. Both bathrooms in the property are fitted to a boutique hotel standard. One has a deep bath and the other a powerful shower. I remember my very first Lake District self catering holiday when the toilet was outside and the water was drawn from a well at the end of a field - it was a long time ago. The beds are comfortable and attractively dressed with throws and cushions. 


And finally, a real rarity for a holiday "cottage", the use of an outdoor hot tub. After a long walk  on the fells this outdoor jacuzzi was the perfect tonic for aching limbs and it was great to sit in it in the dark for half an hour and wind down from our already wound down state to being near comatose.

  


We didn't bother going out at night, preferring the home comforts of the barn but if you do fancy dining out, there are plenty of pubs and restaurants within easy driving distance and the ancient coaching inn, the highly praised Pheasant where we enjoyed a decent Sunday lunch is a pleasant and comfortable walk away (Mark was even kind enough to offer to drive us there). 

I am lucky in having Marion to discover places like this. They don't just turn up at the first click of a mouse. Marion is an avid reader of holiday magazines and the travel sections of the Saturday and Sunday supplements and she catalogues everything that catches her eye and files it away for the future. She found The Lazy Fish reviewed in the Guardian a few years ago and, like so many of the places that she finds, her painstaking thoroughness has proved well worthwhile. We normally have a rule that,as life is short, we don't visit the same place twice but this could be one place to prove the exception to that rule. 


Click on this for more information, prices and bookings.  but don't book for March next year!

Putting The New Hip Through Its Paces

 Our break in the Lakes continues. We're having a great time. On Wednesday I wrote about our walk around Derwent Water and , encouraged by the lack of ill effects on the hip, we planned a more strenuous walk for Thursday. Unfortunately we are fine weather walkers and when we arrived at base camp for the walk near Buttermere, the fells were thick with cloud so we had a change of plan and visited the attractions of Maryport - don't ask

However, the sun was back in the ascendency today and we returned to Buttermere for our attempt on the summit of Hay Stacks which, at 597 metres was classed as the "easiest" walk in our book of Lakeland rambles.

And we made it to the top in exactly the time suggested by the book although "easy" was not the first word to cross our minds as we got there. There's something magical about being out on the fells at this time of year. The light across the valleys (you can see several from the summit) and the shadows cast by the peaks create an ever changing landscape that is quite captivating. The path was clearly a well trodden one but we saw less than thirty other walkers in the four and a half hours that we were on it - another plus for visiting now. As I was happy with the photos taken on the iPhone on Wednesday I left the digital SLR camera at home today and used just the phone. Once again I was very pleased with the results. The weather was obviously a huge bonus but I can see the day coming when phones will replace cameras for all but the professionals and the keenest enthusiasts.

Once again, the hip passed with flying colours but I think that today's walk was about the limit that I will be able to manage now and in the future. We've got a hot tub in the garden here at the cottage so we're going to sit and soak our weary bodies in that for half an hour tonight and sip a glass of wine while we look for the special moon that is forecast. It seems that tonight's full moon coincides with the perigee (the time it is closest to earth). I won't try to blind you with science but the upshot is that tonight's super moon should appear about 14% larger than usual. Look out for it.


We've got friends joining us here tomorrow evening. Like us they are expecting to be grandparents in the very near future so no doubt there will be plenty of baby talk in the conversation. And who can blame us when grandchildren can bring moments like this?

NHS Hip Replacement - The Acid Test

It's almost exactly three months since I was discharged from hospital with my shiny new hip and every week my leg has felt a little bit stronger and my limp has become a little less pronounced. So, as we are in the Lake District - the walkers' paradise, we felt that it was time to put it to a real test and go for a walk in the country.

So here we were at Derwent Water, before the early morning mist had fully cleared, ready to take the launch to the other end of the lake and walk back. The weather smiled kindly on us and by eleven o'clock we had disembarked at Lodor and were heading into the the lakeland wilderness - well, not quite, as, at five past eleven we came upon the Lodor Falls Hotel which proclaimed that ramblers were welcome (providing that boots were left at the door) and five minutes later we were sitting by a roaring fire in our stockinged feet sipping coffee and sampling their home made biscuits - this rambling is thirsty work I'll have you know.

The sun shone, the sky was blue and it was a perfect day to take the hip for a test run. The walk is not exactly strenuous. It carves a scar wide enough for four people across the landscape and even today in early March there was a fair amount of mostly retiree traffic ambling along it's length.We imagine that at weekends and in the summer it will be jam packed with walkers but today there were few enough for us to sometimes wander lonely as the metaphorical cloud.

I took a few shots along the way using the iPhone and I have to say that I am very impressed with the quality for a phone.

The lake was millpond calm throughout the day and we arrived back in Keswick by 3.15 after another brief stop in a cafe for a pot of tea. Although I was fairly tired after the walk, which was, I believe, about six miles, the hip stood up to the test and I got back to the car without any pain. 

The sky was darkening a little by then but the rain held off making it a pretty perfect day. I even found time for a bit of metal detecting when we got back to the cottage and I found this. No idea what it is. I doubt that it is particularly old but answers on a postcard please (or just email me if you like).

Appearances Can Be Deceptive

When I tell you we are staying in this remote farm building well off the beaten track in the Lake District you might pity us and think that Marion's meticulous holiday research had, for once, gone awry. It doesn't look much does it? And with the rain hammering on the roof you might think we were better off at home in Southport.

But you would be well wide of the mark. Because, inside, the building (the Lazy Fish) opens, Tardis-like, to a magnificent airy room complete with wood burner, all the home entertainment facilities you could ask for and a hammock for whiling away those rainy afternoons in comfort. Last night Mark, one of the owners, cooked us a super and inexpensive three course dinner and tonight we are going to try some of the local bacon and Cumberland sausage. If you are looking for a luxurious retreat in one of the quieter parts of Lakeland, check it out by clicking here. But you will need to book early to avoid disappointment as Mark was telling us that they have had almost 100% occupancy since the property featured in a Guardian supplement shortly after it opened in 2007.

Looking at the weather yesterday, it's hard to believe that we are in the same season today but in all honesty we aren't bothered as it will be a bit of fun to try the hot tub in the garden later in the pouring rain. The owners have kindly let me use my metal detector in the fields and their kids have gone to school today with a couple of old halfpennies and a French 50 centime piece that turned up when I gave it a go. Sadly the soil is extremely acidic so the coins, which date from around 1790 to 1920 are in a pretty grotty state.


We've brought along box sets of Mad Men and Harry Potter to watch in the evening but we didn't need to bring them as there are scores of DVDs in the house as well as Scrabble and a few other games to keep us busy. We've got Mark cooking for us again on Thursday and Saturday when some friends are joining us so this is self catering without too much of the self catering.


And of course we've got Internet and WIFI so I can continue to bore my readers.


I'll finish today with a video for son Paul and his wife Josephine. They've just got a couple of cats and, from what I hear, they're a bit like this.