Our little piece of heaven

Good evening all you lovely folks.... well, as promised, I thought I would drop on here and share a few of the pics from our little break away this past week or so. 

It was really lovely to get back up into the Lake District with the hubby and spend some quality time together, instead of both of us shooting off in different directions most of the time! 

We stayed at the Lamplighter in Winderemere and it was lovely. We had had a meal there before, last year when we were up there and it was so nice we decided to book our hotel there too. It was very peaceful - even to say they had a live band on, we never heard anything!  

We did quite alot of walking whilst we were there, which is great to do in the Lakes, and one of the ones we did was up to the Orrest Head. We didn't get right up to the top (we were nearly there but on a time restraint so had to come back down!) but this is the view down over Windermere itself (above) and a view of Lake Windermere (below). Next time we will go right up to the top as the views are amazing. It was early evening when these pics were took on my phone, so they aren't too clear, but I can see them well enough... 

Whilst we were on our little ramble up the Orrest Head path, we came across this intriguing tree trunk....... 

I was totally mesmorised by it, as there were so many coins in it of all different ages - alot older coins, shillings and pence, and it was all the way up the length of the trunk too. It looked amazing, and again I don't think the snaps on my phone did it justice. 

From what I could find on Google when I got home, it is a thing called a Wishing Tree. 

it used to be believed that divine spirits lived in trees, and they were often festooned with sweets and gifts - as is still done today at Christmas.

The act is reminiscent of tossing money into ponds for good luck, or the trend for couples to attach 'love padlocks' to bridges and fences to symbolise lasting romance. The coins are hit into the tree by passers by with rocks that are found close by. 

Doesn't that sound lovely. And I must say, it wasn't the first one that we saw either.. we took a walk up to the waterfall through Ambleside and there were the same there too. Stunning things to look at in the sunshine - in fact, I guess anytime you come across them. A little bit of magic I thought.

One of the other walks that we did was at Esthwaite Water. It's between Windermere and Coniston and is one of the smaller lakes up there, but it's so pretty as you can see.

The weather was lovely for most of the week we were up there, and this day was no exception. Although, during the end of our walk, on the view below, we did get a little bit of sleet and snow, but within a few minutes it was hot and bright sunshine again. 

Near this little lake is the quaintest village with a fantastic little coffee shop. We did treat ourselves to a scone and tea for the hubby, and a redbush tea and a jam and coconut shortbread for me. Rather yummy it was too. 

It is fun having a camera that can do panoramas!

It was soon the end of the week, and time for us to head home to see our little woofers... they had had a holiday of their own with Andrea and James at the kennels (they love it there!!) and I'm sure were totally spoilt rotten too. 

On our last day there, it decided it was going to throw down some snow, which we didn't mind as it made it look more magical. But it did stop us travelling to a lake we wanted to go to after a visit to Grasmere... the road had been shut due to an accident. Not a suprise as the snow was laying very deep. 

We went out for a lovely meal at the Windmill just up the road on the last night there, and the snow was looking lovely on the hills around  us... this is the view as we were leaving Windermere to come home. 

As usual, our little trip was all too short, but I'm sure we will be back again very soon - there's so much to see up there, some lovely Gingerbread to buy and lots more walks to do. 

Thanks for visiting.... xxx