View from Holehird Gardens

Up, packed and away for 10.00am this morning. But back up the same road 20 minutes later to see another property which was just across the road from where we were staying. This was an exceptional property and one that I would have been happy to live in. An elevated position overlooking Lake Windermere and ready to move in without doing anything to it. The 2 bedrooms upstairs were superb, both ensuite and both with great views and sitting areas. But, and there is always a but, the garden was steeply sloped (as it is always likely to be herebouts). It would have made great accommodation for Doreen too. But nobody else shared my enthusiasm.

From viewing the property we went to see Holehird Gardens just to the north of Windermere on the road to Kirkstone Pass. Although it had been raining overnight it cleared enough to give us a dry if somewhat windy visit to these very interesting gardens. The blip is a feeble attempt at trying to capture the view across the gardens to the mountains beyond. Very difficult owing to the greyness of the sky and the variation in scenery from the foreground to the background. The iPhone camera made a better fist of it than the Lumix I thought.

Before leaving for home we called in at Kirkby Lonsdale for lunch as the Lune Valley Bakery. An exceptional place. We all had soup and jacket potatoes. The soup was splendid, plentiful and came with great bread. The potato large with ample topping (cheese, wild boar sausage and beans for me) and a salad. We had to go for a walk around Kirkby, calling in at England's best view before easing ourselves into the car for the journey south.

We left Kirkby at 4.00pm arriving back in Maidstone at 11.00pm, with the one stop on the M6 Toll. We seemed to be very lucky with the traffic as, with just one exception south of Manchester, we were OK - which appeared not to be the case on the rest of the UK motorway network on this bank holiday Friday evening. Our delays were only about 45 minutes so I consider we got off lightly. Now preparing for a busy week prior to another week away in Cornwall next Saturday.