Holiday Reflections; Cumbia and the Lake District.

The county of Cumbria in the northwest of England contains at its heart the Lake District with spectacular scenery of mountains and (as the name suggests) beautiful lakes. The largest is Lake Windermere and, should I ever come into a substantial amount of money, I think that I would buy a house on its shores or in one of the small towns that surround it, such as Bowness-on-Windermere or Ambleside.

The Lighthouse Cafe-Bar Windermere

Unfortunately I have no photos of the lake of my own, so if you would like to see a whole array of pictures I suggest you head to the Flickr Windermere Group.




A popular destination, a little farther on is the poet William Wordsworth's home, Dove Cottage at Grasmere, which is now a museum dedicated to his life and work.

Dove Cottage, Grasmere

Spiking Whitehaven's cannons.

Beyond the Lake District along the coast there are a number of small towns such as Workington and Whitehaven which look out across the Solway Firth towards Dumfries and Galloway in Scotland. Whitehaven, once a major coal exporting port, from mines which used to surround the town, was attacked by the newly formed American Navy under the command of John Paul Jones on 23rd April 1778 during the American War of Independence. Jones, a Scot, had started his maritime career in Whitehaven and knew the importance of the coal trade to the north of England, in the end the raid was of limited success for the Americans with only one merchant ship destroyed although they did manage to spike the town's defensive cannons, today commemorated with a bronze statue.