With its soaring peaks and gorgeous countryside, the Lake District is one of the most beautiful places I know. Now, after a month’s average rain fell in 24 hours, the area around Cockermouth, Braithwaite, Keswick and Carlisle looks more like a mud swamp. The devastation wrought by Storm Desmond in Cumbria is truly shocking. Roads have been blocked, villages cut off from the outside world and many people won’t be ...keep reading
Help! I thought I was completely organised, but as usual I’ve rifled through all the secret carrier bags stashed under the bed and realised I haven’t cracked Christmas at all. But in a bid to make everything easy I hit on the idea of buying my extra presents from one shop. And where better than Blacks? The stores sell everything to do with the great outdoors – tents, camping equipment ...keep reading
The British papers are reporting that Hollywood superstars Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt have booked a holiday in the Lake District with their seven children. Apparently they plan to take Maddox, 11, Pax, eight, Zahara, seven, Shiloh, six, and four-year-old twins Vivienne and Knox to a converted boathouse on the shores of Lake Windermere while Angelina shoots her new movie. For a family used to jet-setting between glamorous homes in LA, ...keep reading
As we ground to a halt on the motorway for the umpteenth time I began to wonder whether our Christmas trip to the Lake District was worth it. The journey should take four hours but in 20 years of visiting the place we’ve never managed it in less than six. We usually arrive in a filthy temper at midnight and swear we’ll never do it again. This was the first ...keep reading