Holker Hall

Holker Hall is a great place to visit, for the gardens and the house.
The house has two wings. The family live in the older, Tudor part, built by the Prestons and inherited by the Cavendish family, and the part we are shown round is the Victorian wing, rebuilt by the 7th Duke of Devonshire following a fire in 1871.
The rooms are large, spacious, and quite light. The oak is a mid oak colour, not yet aged very much.  Very little is roped off, as the rooms are used when not open to the public. There were five guides on duty, ready to talk about the rooms or answer any questions, or just leave you to absorb the atmosphere. There are many fine paintings and pieces of furniture, dating from before the Victorian era, brought by the Duke in the days when the house was part of the Chatsworth estate.  Lord Cavendish is second cousin to the 12th Duke of Devonshire.
We had already peeked into the library and drawing room, admiring the geraniums growing in the bay windows, as we walked in the gardens. Each had a desk placed in the bay window, making best use of the natural light, but the large windows gave both rooms a large bright and comfortable feel.  Even with every wall lined with books, the library felt like a living room.
The furnishings were bright and bold; blue sofas and curtains against deep red wallpaper in the drawing room, vivid green wallpaper in the billiard room, two heavy carved spiral columns either side of the dining room fireplace, but the rooms were large enough that it was not overwhelming.
You could imagine upstairs feeling like a comfortable family home. All the rooms were off a long gallery, with rocking horse and see-saw and card tables, as well as a real live fire in the fire place.  Each bedroom was a sizable living room, with fire and sofas and chairs. You could say that there were eight bedrooms rather than four, as each came with its own adjoining dressing room, where the valet or maid would sleep, ready to attend if needed.
In 1875 the house had all mod cons, including a bathroom. It may not have been used that much, as each bedroom had its chamber pot and wash stand.  Two rooms now have en-suite. One was made for Queen Mary in 1937, by dividing up the bathroom - she had a modern bath but the original WC and basin.  The other was added in 1939 when the Duke of Gloucester came to visit. In many ways the Duke's bedroom was best, being above the drawing room and having the same rounded bay window projecting from the corner of the house.
As well as the house there is the gardens. Next to the house is a formal garden with a fairly refreshing feel, having been laid out in 1993. That leads on to the summer garden, also laid out quite formally, with trees shaped very  square and severe. It feels quite architectural, but there is a lot of floral interest from the border on the long side nearest the house, backing onto the private garden. At the far end a corner gate leads to the rest of the gardens, and an end gate leads to the meadow, with wild flowers, a sundial and a labyrinth.
There is a fountain, at the foot of a cascade leading up to a statue of Neptune. The fountain is at a beautiful spot, surrounded by tall rhododendrons.  One of the famous features of the garden is the Holker Lime, which is certainly impressive for its girth, but we nearly missed it as we expected it to be freestanding. We ended up at the sunken garden, which was a very restful spot to enjoy the late afternoon sun.

Two Peas

Much of Fauré's Requiem is marked as pianissimo, but we are a small choir, and with few voices the choir director said we should sing it a little louder. She said we should take the two 'p's with a pinch of salt.

Winder Hill & Killington

I went up Winder Hill by Sedbergh ten days ago. I had forgotten to pack my walking boots, but my trainers were up to the task.

It was a gentle day. The second hand bookshop in Carnforth is good for maps, as the 4 lake district ones do not cover Sedbergh and the Howgills. I enjoyed a leisurely cup of coffee and Carnforth station, and considered a gentle walk along the Lune, but there was no very obvious place to park along the road from the M6 to Sedbergh.  I drove North of Sedbergh and enjoyed some great views over the river the Lune valley from the road up to Howgill, and then returned back to the centre of Sedbergh as there was no obvious place to park on the Howgill road either.
Winder Hill is access land, which means you can wander wherever, but the route up is marked by a closely cut grass path. Three paths meet at the top, two ascending from either side and one leading North to Bram Rigg and the Calf.  There are no rocky outcrops here, it is all grassy hills and valleys, with a gentle beauty.
There is a great view of the town of Sedbergh, which sits in a lush valley that widens out to the West to join the Lune valley running from North to South.  Looking East, you can pick out the Rawthey valley leading to Kirkby Stephen, the Gardsdale valley, leading to Wensleydale and Yorkshire, and the Dee valley, leading to Dentdale.
At the top, I saw a  group of two or three people a mile or so away to the North, but apart from that I did not meet anyone from leaving the road until rejoining it. Stopping on a bench to eat an apple, I did get overtaken by two walkers, they were part of a walking group from a church in Formby.
From the top I could see Morecambe Bay, and a little nearer, Killington Lake, but I could not see that anyone was sailing there.
There were people sailing at Killington on the Sunday.  Lancaster sea scouts were on Toppers, Sedbergh school were on a Laser 2000, and I made use of the club RS Feva.  The wind was quite strong, enough to bring a couple of wind surfers out, and with quite strong gusts forecast I thought the Feva would be easier to right and continue sailing than the Wayfarer. It certainly zipped along very nicely.

Force 5 at Killington

Jeff and I had a great days sailing on Monday, with thanks to Dave for lending the wetsuit, and to Pete and Gareth for giving us the confidence.
Pete had been teaching some beginners in the high winds all weekend, but had reached the limit of what he could show them, and had decided to postpone for a quieter day when they would be able to take the helm. They were disappointed, and so were we as we hoped to have the benefit of them being on the lake. But Pete encouraged us, so with a reef in the mainsale, (thanks to Tony last week), the jib furled but ready for use if needed, and the centre board only half down, we set off to see how it went.
We were not alone on the lake, for as Pete and Gareth had predicted, the high winds did bring two windsurfers out. We were glad for their company and glad that there were other users on the lake.
The wind was strong and coming from the North East. I had only seen a northerly wind once before, on Easter Monday, but then it was nearer North, and was blowing down the channel on the other side of the island. This day the channel was in the lee of the island, and quite calm.
It was a great day sailing.  After some tacks to and fro across the lake we headed up wind, the north east corner seemed to need repeated short tacks to get there, but we managed it OK each time.
There was definitely less healing with less centreboard, but even so there were some interesting moments with the gusts.  With no jib, there was less for Jeff to do as crew, but he got the hang of moving about OK.  It was generally quite easy to see the wind direction from the waves, and the gusts from the darker patches of water, although sometimes the gusts started with a change in wind direction, causing the sale to flap before hitting it with force.
It was a sunny day, and when the wind eased off and we had time to look around there were some glorious moments, with the sun shining across the water.  We had two or three breaks, and I am glad to say I did a better job of brining the boat into the jetty that the previous week.  Most of the time we stayed fairly dry, but when the wind was at its strongest there were a few splashes coming over the bows, which added to the fun.

Toward the end of the afternoon, the wind grew stronger again, and it was even more of a struggle to keep the boat steady, so we came in and called it a day. A great Day.

Easter Monday

On Easter Monday I went sailing at Killington with Chris and David.
We could see one boat already on the water as we left the motorway, but as we arrived Ian & Geraldine were just finishing, so we pretty much had the whole lake to ourselves.  There was one young lad getting a canoeing lesson, watched by his Dad, and we enjoyed the company of Jane, who was doing some repairs to her Laser in the clubhouse.  Later, Tony Longworth arrived to do some strimming around the grounds.
It was quite blowy, so we put a reef in the sail, not very expertly, and the sail creased badly and the boom was very low until Tony showed us how to tie the clew to the outhaul first, and round the boom if at all afterwards.
Given the wind conditions, David decided that reading in the fresh air or in the clubhouse was better than sailing, though after we came in for lunch the wind dropped a little, and he was enticed out, and quite enjoyed it.
I need more practice at coming into the jetty, and after one near miss turned round and ended up being hit on the head by the head as we jibed.  Thankfully this was when Tony was there and he talked me through the next approach, steering three boat lengths downwind of the jetty before turning to wind.
With the sail set better and the boom higher things felt much better, and Chris took the helm and did very well. It was after that when I was helming that we had a particularly strong gust, and we stayed upright by letting go of the tiller and sheet, effective but not very good at keeping control. There was quite a bit of water beneath the floor boards after that.
We have no pictures to show, although I brought a camera we never took it out, partly because it was quite busy sailing and partly because there were no other boats on the lake. Still a good days sailing.  A rare day, a force 3 coming from the North.