Sun over the Kent.

Had a glorious day out today in Kendal. It was a very cold start but the sun and mist across the craven hills en route were delightful. More sun and a distinct increase in temperature after we arrived and had a coffee at the 'Lakes Outlet' aka K village.

We used to do this run quite regularly, stopping for a shop at the K village, where at one time K shoes were made and it was always buzzing with people. We would then walk up into town and back via the river. Some years ago they decided to redevelop the sight as the shoe factory had gone and I expect they felt it was a key site for expensive flats by the river. The new outlet and flats have been there for some years now but on our first visit 2 years ago in January, we were dismayed at how empty it was. Some units already vacated. We asked questions of various shop owners and they felt the car park charges had had an impact. We were lucky today as they had stopped car park charges for December but the shopping centre was just as dead. The empty units still empty and some new ones vacated. I can't imagine the Clark's village in Street being so quiet two weeks before Christmas!

We walked into town to take a look at the Quaker Tapestry exhibition we had intended visiting when last in the area in September. It is a permanent exhibition and well worth a look. I learnt a lot about the history of the Quakers but my main reason for visiting was to see the handiwork which was fantastic. Superb stitching, they even invented a new stitch now called the Quaker stitch but there were also elements of each image that had been done by children. Amazingly this exhibition was also free on most dates in December.
Chris, perhaps a little less interested in the tapestries than me, got into conversation with the lady on the desk about the afore mentioned shopping outlet and she believed that none of the flats had sold and indeed had some structural problems and the place is in receivership. Really sad.

We returned via the riverside walk and had lunch where I took this view of the River Kent and the hills beyond. You can just see some lenticular clouds developing above the hills. We watched them as we ate and headed home with skies full of contrails and interesting clouds highlighted by the sunset over the hills to the west (Gladder's country!)

A blessing of a day for December particularly as the traffic reports were all about fog in other parts of the country and closed airports!