Nula Hula entertains with her best multiple hula hoop moves. Pictured on Broad Street by Richard Cave 19.11.17

nearest the old festival of Samhain, which marks the end of the harvest season and the beginning of the “darker half” of the year –musicians, street performers, a giant wolf lantern and locals wearing masks and carrying flaming torches join the herd at the Ullswater Droving for a unique Halloween celebration steeped in tradition.
As the great day fast approaches, local businesses both large and small are keen to support this event and hope to see it become part of the annual calendar. With the scheduled closure of the temporary bridge in Autumn 2019, comes a stark reminder of the dark days and months that followed in the wake of Storm Desmond when the valley was literally cleaved in two as Pooley Bridge fell.

Keen to show the valley is now (and will remain!) open for business, no less than ten local businesses have sponsored the event organised by Eden Arts helping to boost funding from both Eden District Council, Barton Parish Council and the Lake District National Park. 1863 Bar Bistro Rooms, Another Place, Chestnut House, Granny Dowbekin’s, Hillcroft Park, The Crown, The Sun Inn Ullswater Steamers and Waterside House Campsitehave joined forces and literally put their money where their mouths are to help make this event happen. Some of them will also be offering further support in the form of food and drink ‘pop-ups’ on the Melodrome Stage field.

Mark Vause, owner of 1863 Bar Bistro Rooms and Ullswater Droving sponsor commented:

“We’re all so pleased that 2018 will see another Ullswater Droving. We’re very grateful to all our funders and sponsors – Eden Arts and Eden District Council in particular – for this fantastic opportunity. We very much hope that this will be the first in a series of events we are planning to stage over the next 18 months that will help raise the profile of Pooley Bridge as ‘open for business’ in the lead up to and during the bridge closure in 2019/20.”

5.10pm: Mr Wilson’s Second Liners (think New Orleans meets 90s club classics) depart from Aira Force Jettyon Ullswater Steamers – why not join them on them on the boat?

5.30pm:  Visitors gather at the steamer jetty to take up their flaming torches (please sign up in advance) and welcome the musicians

6.00pm:  Steamer arrives. Mr Wilson’s Second Liners lead the torch light procession through Pooley Bridge to the field behind the Sun Inn. This year the band will be accompanied by The Wolf animal lantern which was sponsored by Ullswater Steamers in 2017.

6.30pm:  Procession arrives at field behind Sun Inn for the lighting of the bonfire.

Hot Dogs, burgers and mulled wine courtesy of The Sun Inn, popular award-winning bistro 1863 will be offering tastings, soup and prosecco or if it’s gin you’re after, Chestnut House will be on hand to help. Further afield both Granny Dowbekin’s and Tree Tops will be open late.

6.40pm: Mr Wilson’s Second Liners take to the stage

7.40pm: Dopesickfly continue the music on the Melodrome Stage

8.45pm: The party continues around the village’s pubs, restaurants and cafes

Can you help?

Winter Droving Penrith 2016 Procession Photo by: Graham Wynne

In order to make this event a success – we need you!

Wood for the bonfire– we need plenty of wood for our huge bonfire – if you can help, please drop it down into the field behind The Sun by 8pm, Wednesday 24 October

Building the Bonfire – all hands on deck to build the bonfire at 3pm on Thursday 25 October – just email [email protected] and turn up ready for elements!

Carry a Torch – join the procession as a flaming torch-bearer. You must be over 16 – please register online by visiting www.winterdroving.uk

The post ULLSWATER DROVING EVENT ANTICIPATING – WELL – DROVES OF VISITORS! appeared first on Ullswater Association.

As I travel along life’s journey into middle age I find myself complaining a lot that things aren’t as good as they used to be and people aren’t as kind and that

A perfect day in the Lakes

I’m generally not all that impressed with the 21st Century. I’m actually starting to sound a lot like Grandpa Simpson, but modern life just seems to put so much more pressure on everyone, and for all the advances in technology and health care we are under so much pressure just to make ends meet that it is running us into the ground. And that’s before we get stressed that our lives are dull and boring compared to everyone else’s awesome adventurous News Feed on Facebook. When you’re a kid you think everyone is sorted except you and it seems so unfair. One good thing about growing older is the wisdom that comes with it and realising that everyone is messed up to a degree, some are just better at hiding it than others.

Glenridding from Place Fell

Technology has brought so many new stresses and anxiety’s into our lives that our quickly evolving brains have never had to deal with before, it really can leave us feeling useless and worthless. I am so grateful that I live in rural Cumbria where we do have a great quality of life. I wouldn’t cope well living in a city with artificial horizons all around me and millions of people all busy wrapped up in their own worlds. Honestly that is my idea of Hell.

So what’s the best medicine for modern life, stresses and technology? It has to be hill walking. Getting out into the open with nothing around you but natural beauty. I love having a big day out in the fells. Spending as much time being absorbed in nature and stopping to look around me. I’ll sit for half an hour studying the moss and grass I’m walking over looking for unusual flowers and bugs then another half hour just looking around me. Wild Camping gives me a really good opportunity to just stop and sit. I’ll try and figure out which mountains are which, what sort of trees I’m looking at and if I get a starry night I’ll just keep looking up and watch all the shooting stars and get lost in the Milky Way.

All year we talk to people in the shop about how good it feels to get out and have a day on the hills. Folk come in after a day’s hill walking with a big smile
n their face and you can tell they are buzzing. They get all excited telling us where they have been and what they have seen. I get the same feeling from a big day out on the hills that I do after a holiday. I feel I have been away from the daily grind and I have visited somewhere beautiful and different. Nowhere

Beautiful Ullswater

does this more for me than going up the Zig Zags at the mines above Glenridding in the winter, and coming out at Greenside in the snow. It can be a normal un-snowy winter’s day in Glenridding but once you pop out at Greenside it’s like being in the Alps. Walking up the Zig Zags is like going through the wardrobe and you come out in Narnia. Then after a day on Helvellyn with the crampons and ice axe or a day’s snowboarding on Raise you get back home and think, was I really in the Alps just a couple of hours ago, feels like it.

By having regular trips into the hills it keeps a balance in your life. It’s not all about work and commuting and paying the bills. Spending your recreational time out of the town or city is very important. You need to see real horizons, the craggier the better, and feel something other than the pavement beneath your feet. And country pubs are so much better and friendlier than town pubs, they’re a great way to reacclimatize after your wonderful day in the hills

Whiteside in the white stuff

with nature for company.

And there’s an old saying but there’s a lot of truth in it. Healthy Body Healthy Mind. You don’t need to join a gym or run a marathon. Just take regular walks and look after your diet with lots of fresh fruit and veg, we are merely animals grazing on this fine planet. Make your mental and physical health as much a priority as paying the bills and take the time to enjoy the little things. We are so lucky to live in the most beautiful country in the world, please take the time to enjoy it.

The post Hill Walking & Mental Health by Andrew Laverick (Castycam) appeared first on Ullswater Association.

The colour changes started early with the first dazzling touches of lime yellow, and we worried that the season would be short – needlessly – as Autumn proceeded to unfold into a leisurely lengthy and complex series of rich colour drifts and magical atmospheric effects. No two days were the same, to paraphrase, ‘Infinite variety’ was Ullswater’s Autumnal gift last year, and it continued to surprise and delight for months.

The scientific reason for the dazzling display was a wet Spring and sunny Summer, ideal for building up leaf sugars – which the trees reabsorb as the days shorten. Even the shock of sudden early snows, (fortunately picturesquely on the tops, not the roads), didn’t bring the season to an abrupt end. They created magical new combinations of mists and sunlight, producing extraordinarily dramatic effects of otherworldly beauty.

Our local landscape photographers love this time of year, the lake’s twists and bends with numerous valleys pouring down to its shores create boundless opportunities for dramatic compositions or intimate detail; the expanses of old temperate rainforest come into their own too as funghi pops and the young Red Squirrels look for new territories.

October sees the Martindale Red Deer stags fighting for dominance – the unearthly roar of their challenges echoes across the eastern fells.

If you want to experience the unspoilt Lake District in all its splendour, Ullswater is the place to be in Autumn.

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