We arrived at Glenda’s favourite shop in Penrith, Satu Interiors, just as they were closing. Actually, they were already closed – for four days, as they installed their Christmas display. But when we got there, the owners were just leaving for lunch. We delayed them just long enough for me to extract a personal recommendation for (and an introduction to) a local garage and for Glenda to talk her way into their grand Christmas opening party a few days later. We left with a garage appointment for an oil change in three days time and with Glenda clutching her copper-plate invitation to Christmas Heaven!
I had lunch with a long lost friend while Glenda was shopping in Penrith.
Then there was an organ recital going on in St. Andrew’s in the town centre.
Either that, or it was a rehearsal for Sunday! In the churchyard there was a family corner. These headstones marked a total of 30 members of the local Harrison clan.
… and beside the church there was a weird and wonderful collection of stones …
Known as the Giant’s Grave, it is a scheduled monument consisting of two Anglian cross-shafts and four hogback stones. According to legend, this marked the grave of Owen Caesarius, King of Cumbria from 920 to 937AD. But you can bet that the stones have been moved since then! Close by in the churchyard there is also the Giant’s Thumb (the remains of an old Norse cross). And, near the River Eamont which flows past the southern edge of town, there is the Giant’s Cave. Clearly there were lots of big people living in the area back in the day!
On Saturday we decide to visit Beetham Garden Centre. Conveniently located south of the Lake District, we being camped to the north, best part of 50 miles away! But they have historically served rather enormous, cream-filled meringues. Just had to be done! But when we get there, the carpark is packed. Cars parked everywhere. We ended up in a grassy area half a mile walk away. Something is on! It turns out that this weekend is “Apple Weekend “. Everyone living within 50 miles with an apple tree in their garden has descended on the place. And they’ve brought their apple crop with them! One weekend every year (it transpires) the Centre lays on an apple press.
They come. They queue. They get their fruit pressed. They leave with bottles of home grown, ethically extracted apple juice! But they don’t leave without jamming the coffee shop and restaurant! But having driven for hours to get here, we are not going to give up!
Hard to get the scale of the meringue. However, we shared half of the thing on site and then took the other half home and shared that for tea!
Task accomplished, we decided to leave the apple mayhem to the locals and headed (even further away from base) to Kirkby Lonsdale. A lovely, if rather touristy small town. I counted seven pubs. That alone qualifies the place as a good one to visit. We still have four to get to! And there’s the beautiful local church … with it’s ancient and crumbly tower which needs millions spending on it to make it safe and secure.
St Stephen’s Church, (I guess in a town called Kirkby Stephen, it had to be called that!) It is also lovingly referred to as the “Cathedral of the Dales” because it is the second largest parish church in Cumbria.
‘Kirkby’ means ‘church place’ and is a Viking name. Presumably, Viking settlers built the first church here sometime around 900 AD.
Walking through the churchyard I came across a cute little tower …
… just before arriving at “Ruskin’s View” – with it’s fabulous panorama looking out over the River Lune.
… and then down the “Radical Steps” (all 88 of them!) to the riverside walk …
… downstream to the Devil’s Bridge.
It’s called the Devil’s Bridge because of legends that say the devil built the bridge in exchange for the soul of the first living creature to cross it. In these stories, a clever person tricks the devil by sending an animal across first, often a dog or a cat, and the devil, furious at being outsmarted, disappears forever. This story is common to many bridges with this name around the world.
Now, back to reality. Of a sort! The local rounders team was holding their end-of-season celebration. It looked like a pub crawl to me. But they had started at the town’s brewery. I suppose seven stops isn’t enough for these athletes! The party had been crashed by the Jamaican bob-sleigh team!
Driving home, I decided (rather misguidedly as it turned out) to drive home via Windermere. This avoids the terrible drive on the A66 from Penrith straight into the setting sun. However! HOWEVER! As we passed Staveley, the sky suddenly started sparkling a pretty blue colour. Ahead of us, completely blocking the road, there were five police cars, three ambulances, a fire engine and a helicopter. Another hour or two were spent in tiny country lanes with hundreds of others trying to move forward towards Bowness. Of course, when we do break out of the lanes, we end up in the traditional Lakeland traffic jams in Bowness and Windermere. It’s dark when we get home – so we wouldn’t have had trouble with the setting sun anyway!
The Christmas preview-by-special-invitation was held on Sunday at Satu Interiors. Their little emporium was beautifully decorated with lovely things. Don’t tell Glenda I said so, but the place is spectacular! The prossecco, the mince pies, the biscuits and the chocolates were pretty good too!
Had we been staying in the area any longer we might well have booked in to a wreath-making workshop. But we aren’t, so we didn’t.
Afterwards we hit Penrith Golf Club for a very good coffee. Then we upgraded to Sunday lunch. This too, was excellent. The only thing not up to snuff was the view. On top of the hill, we were in thick clouds! Only when we were leaving did the clouds start to lift and would-be golfers started getting all excited!
The next morning we took one last look at our campsite …
Then we moved our caravan to a sheltered spot behind the farm, put on all security devices, turned off the gas and left for Glasgow. We had booked a three night hotel stay back in Scotland to be with Kirsty, her mum and John.
To be continued.