Day 9 - Rain Rain Rain

Friday - A dreary day, heavy rain with no prospect of respite from the weather. The children reported the tent flooded again, on inspection, it appears the rubberised overseal on the inside of the stiched seams, has perished and come away, leaving the rain to filter through the stitching holes and enter the tent.
Nelly, Mr Fink and I went to Broughton to have our breakfast at The Square Cafe - delicious, recommended.

On our return, Mr fink and Bambino (the rest of the Glums had gone to explore Whitehaven) again mopped up the tent, covered the top with a 4 metre tarpaulin and secured same. the wind blew, the tarp rattled and cracked in the storm, but it held and the tent was mostly dry.
We watched films, walked the dog, observed the rain lashing down, the puddles getting wider and deeper.
Eventually we headed to bed, the storm still raging, the youngsters sent to bed with ear plugs to mask the sound of the tarp thrashing against the wind. All night it rained and rained, waking everyone up at some point during the evening.

Day 8 - David Bailey eat your heart out

Yesterday before the Glums went to Ulverston, I asked Bambi if he was passing a camera shop, could he get me a screen protector. He did visit a camera shop, he forgot to get a screen protector, but he (and Mrs Glum) gave me a new camera lens!!!!!! A beautiful Nikon zoom 55-200mm wow. How happy was I? Amazing.

Thursday - Mr Fink, Nelly and Bambino headed off to Windermere and Coniston. The rest of us were feeling lazy and didn't fancy a long car journey so we decided to take a trip to Hodbarrow Nature Reserve nearby and experiment with Marsha's and my cameras.

After a thrilling and bumpy ride through massive rain water filled pot holes, we arrived at Hodbarrow Point where there is a beautiful little cove with a sandy beach, rocks and heathland to explore.
Mrs Glum elected to sit in the car overlooking the coastline and read. Marsha, Bambi and I went on a photo safari. We captured images of a hawk in flight, catching it's tea and at rest. White, brown and blue butterflies, landscapes, cloudscapes, abstract natural images and portraits.
The weather and light was perfect, sunny bright and warm. We spent 3 hours exploring the nature reserve, old sea wall, ruined windmill, old lighthouse, coastline and rugged rocks.
The new lens really made taken excellent photos very easy indeed. I'm really pleased with the results and I'm learning more all the time.
We spent the evening viewing and explaining the photos, what a thoroughly good day.

PS. We've had a couple of evenings where we've been trying to watch the Perseid meteor shower. One of our party - who shall remain nameless - saw the International Space Station (ISS) cross the sky for the first time and remarked, "For the ISS and the satellites to be visible from earth, the lights on them must be really powerful?"

Day 7 - waterlogged tents and tasty dinners

Wednesday's weather forecast was due to be torrential rain for Cumbria so the Glums decided to strike out alone and visit Ulverston (birth place of Stan Laurel). They hadn't been gone 10 minutes when my phone rang, it was Bambi, "Did your dad (Shouty Grandad) get his tooth knocked out when he was a child? I've just met a bloke who says his brother did!"

We decided to do a recce of Ladyhall where my paternal great grandfather and his family once lived and worked a farm on the salt marsh.
We had a drive arouns and spotted where we thought the abandoned farm buildings might be but didn't know where the path down to it was so I'll have to revisit with my parents another time.
We headed out to The High Cross Inn at Broughton, a pub/hotel/restaurant I have passed hundreds of times but never been in. The pub is very welcoming, even with a little nook where you can chose a book and sit and read. I spoke to the landlady (of only 9 weeks) about how the area gets in your veins, she agreed. There was a varied and interesting menu, I had Cumbrian chicken stuffed with black pudding in mustard seed sauce - lovely. As we ate, we looked out of the conservatory across the Duddon Valley at the heavy rain pounding down.
We headed back to the campsite and arrived just as a massive cloudburst opened and started to flood the site. Mr Fink checked the tent to find one of the zips had been left open, the tent was full of 2 inches of water! So when the rain stopped, Bambi, Bambino, Mr Fink and I bailed out the tent, dried it out, repegged it (with new pegs - the family that borrowed the tent last, forgot to put the pegs back in the bag - DOH!) and rearranged the sleeping compartments to keep anything from rubbing on the sides. The girls and Mrs Glum dried the blow up beds and sleeping bags with a combination of the camp drier (until she was chucked out at 5pm) and Bambino's hair drier. It was all very 'Dunkirk spirit'!

In the evening the boys and Marsha took Glumdog for a walk round to the lighthouse and we all went to bed relatively early.

Day 5 and 6 - Water fights and bridge jumping

Monday we had a day round the camp, Marsha and Nelly went off to the beach on a camera treasure hunt, trying to take pictures of items on a list we made up for them. Later we all headed to the river for a game of catch, Glumdog learned to swim and Bambi and Mr Fink spent a lot of their time windmilling their arms trying to stay upright in the fast flowing slippery (oddly named) River Lazy. Nelly flew her kite and I took some excellent pictures of her.
For dinner, Mr Fink cooked Bootle sausage with spuds and cabbage. Yum.
Glumdog started to bark in the night so Bambi took him for a walk in the dark. Mr Fink set off to follow but lost Bambi and soon felt he was being followed. He headed back to the static caravan with the intention of getting a torch and a 'weapon', as he was fumbling about in the shed for a shovel, he heard, "'Allo, what you doing?" It was Bambi, returned from his walk.

Tuesday we were going to head up to Coniston but as he weather seemed fair, we went to Ulpha instead.
Ulpha is my favourite place on this planet. The part I love is Ulpha Bridge where a dry stone road bridge, about 20ft high, crosses a crystal clear and deep mountain stream. The grassy banks are nibbled by sheep into lush velvet cushions and the granite/quartz rocks rise up through the turf like miniature skyscrapers.
I get a feeling of calm, peace and contentment whenever I come here. If I were a spiritual person I would say this is my cathedral or place of meditation. I feel very at home here.

We set up our picnic, chairs and blankets on the close cropped turf and the younger ones made for the freezing river, tipping each other in, setting each other adrift on the rubber ring and jumping in off the stantions of the bridge. they slipped and slide downstream and swam in the deep clear waters, only coming ashore to warm up!
Traditionally, young men have jumped off the road bridge into the fathomless depths of the river but horror stories I had been brought up with, of young lives being lost through jumping into the wrong part of the river, have always made me wary of letting my family jump from the 20ft parapet.
Bambi and Mr Fink, ever mindful of their good natured rivalry were leaning on the parapet trying to see where the deep part of the river was but the position of the sun prevented this. Presently 2 young local chaps turned up, stripped to the waist and joined our men on the bridge. they had a conversation about the right place to jump off, where in the river to aim for and how to combat the freezing shock of the water. after a few minutes, the first young man took a short run up, placed his hand on the bridge, vaulted over the dry stone wall and plummeted into the icy stream. he bobbed back up, then his friend did the same, athletically swinging his legs sideways like an athlete on the pommel horse then pencil straight into the clear water.
Our men looked at each other. Bambi took the lead, swung his long legs (he IS called Bambi for a reason!) over the wall, gave Mr Fink a nod and pushed himself off. He let out a loud yell as he went down. The triumph on his face was a picture, "I did it first! Beat ya!"
His glory was short lived when Mr Fink stood up on the wall, took a deep breath and jumped out into the air. A big splash later and a victorious hubby surfaced, smiling. Bambi was not to be beaten, "Oh no, I suppose I've got to go off it standing up as well now?" After a couple more jumps, Marsha and Nelly were asking if they too could jump. We decided, if they had the bottle to do it, they should be allowed to do it.
Nelly went first, blood curdling scream on the way down, such elation on her face when she bobbed back up. Next was Marsha, a little hesitant at first but she stepped off and took the plunge. Unfortunately, I mucked up the camera and didn't get it on video so she had to do it again. Trouble was, I missed her second jump so she had to go again! Finally, Bambino took to the wall and in a very low key way, jumped out into the freezing river.
Everyone congratulated themselves and we headed home (a little sun burned) for tuna pasta a la Nelly and a night of star gazing and meteor watching.

Good times.

Day 4 - loose dogs and water fights

Today we headed off to Wastwater to Britain's favourite view. The roads were twisty and narrow the weather dull and moody. The shadows cast onto the 3 mountains bordering the lake made them look broody and sinister.
We paddled in the cold dark waters, Glumdog found a dank, stagnant puddle to jump into and the kids (I include Mr Fink and Bambi in this group) all paddled across to the little island for a photo opportunity.

We then headed up to Wasdale Head at the top of the lake for a pint of cool Weston's cider and a stunning view of the river. We would have gone for a walk to see the smallest church but the weather beat us to it and we headed back to camp.

Glumdog rode in the Fink car on the way home, we decamped at the static only to find the campsite cat, 'Prince' curled up and fast asleep on the chair on the veranda. We shooed the cat away but he just sat on the grass near the veranda. Glumdog was desperate to make friends with the cat so he jumped over the gate and headed for the cat. The cat just sat and looked at him, gave him a couple of cursory swipes and before any harm to come to either of them, I grabbed the dog. I returned him to the veranda where Mr Fink put him on his lead. I decided I would tether him down on the grass, as I led him down, he lunged, the split ring on his collar broke, his dog tag fell between the slats on the veranda and the dog honed in on the cat.
again the cat did nothing but stare at the dog, the dog did nothing but stare at the cat and I again caught him.
By the time the Glums returned to camp, Glumdog's lead was firmly secured to a peg in the ground and the cat was sitting just out of reach.
We decided we couldn't have the cat loitering near the dog, for it's own good so I chucked a couple of pints of water at it and it soon got the message and wandered off.
I mentioned to Marsha that the dog tag was under the veranda and she might like to crawl under to fetch it. She took the broom and squeezed into the crawl space. I couldn't resist and reached for the pint of water I had to hand for the return of the cat and poured some of it onto the boards of the veranda.
Marsha screamed!!
Anyway, she found the tag and joined me and Bambi on the veranda. "Which one of you soaked me?" she asked. I naturally pointed to Bambi. Marsha threw a pint of water at Bambi.
Bambi then threw a pint of water at me for telling fibs and for getting him wet!

We rounded off the day with dog walks and the Olympic closing ceremony. All in all a great day.

Day 3 - Banana Boats and Pies

Today the 'men' fixed the dog gate to the static's veranda. This was a poor excuse for a trip into Millom to the hardware shop where they spent ages drooling over power tools. We managed to stop Bambi from buying a hammer drill. We visited the best pie shop in the world and drove back to the site, the car filled with the wonderful scent of meat and potato pies. Yum!

The rest of the day was spent in and around the beach, football, photographs and the Glums' inflatable 2 man canoe. It's bright yellow and hard to miss. Bambi and Marsha paddled in the sea, joined by Mr Fink. Mrs Glum, glumdog and I relaxed on a bench overlooking the estuary. Beautiful.

In the evening Mrs Glum made a delicious spag bol. We went bed, tired and happy.

Day 2 - Friday

I had booked Marsha and Nelly on a day's horseriding, trekking up Black Coombe. Meanwhile everyone else went to Ulpha (a local beauty spot where local teenagers jump 20ft off the quaint road-bridge into the mountain stream. A dad and his children were jumping and I wanted to test my new camera so I asked if I could take some action shots of them, to which he agreed. The photos came out perfectly, I am so pleased with them. I asked for the family's email address so that I could send them on, only for the mum to tell me their camera had broken on the first day of their holiday.

Bambino and Mr Fink went downstream, about 30 minutes later they returned. Bambino was soaked from head to foot. Mr Fink had explained that the river was deep enough to jump in so Bambino had swung from the branch of a tree, accidentally slipped and fell in! Like father like son? I think so.

Later we drove over Corney Fell, beautiful big skies and views across the fells to Wasdale and Scafell Pike (NOT 'SKAW' but 'Scar'). Many many photo opportunities. Bambi was driving the fell road where there are intermittent, signposted, 'passing places', he reversed back to one of the passing places, told me to come and take a photo of him. He was standing by the sign with his back to me and his hands hidden. When i looked up at the sign, some bright spark had peeled off the 'A' in 'passing' and replaced it with a bit of tape, turning it into an 'I'. Very funny!

We met the girls on the return from their ride, they were saddle sore but exhilarated, they'd had a lovely day.

The Glums ; Finks Holiday : Day 1 in the Big Brudder House

It's holiday time, The Finks are off on tour with The Glums. We call them the Glums but they are anything but glum. there's Mrs Glum (terrific cook), Mr Glum or Bambi (chronic clumsiness, all round nice guy), Marsha (surrogate daughter of mine), Bambino (tall, great SOH) and Glumdog (young wire haired fox terrier).

A 240 mile journey took about 5 hours, as we came off the M6 at junction 36, the scenery changes, the sky widens and the fells rise up to meet it. I'm home. Cumbria.

I wasn't born in Cumbria, I'm a Southern softie. My parents, Nanny and Shouty Grandad are Cumbrians and I've been visiting the county ever since I was born. I have always felt an affinity with the area, I feel calm and rested after only a few hours in the fresh salty air. "Where the mountains meet the sea".

My Aunty Joannie, who owns the static caravan at Haverigg, kindly allows us to borrow it. At the back you can see Black Coombe (1970ft), at the front, the sea. It's beautiful.

We explored the beach, took photographs (I have a new camera which I'm learning to use) and enjoyed the sunset. In the evening the kids went to bed in the tent and Bambi - ever competitive - challenged Mr Fink to an arm wrestle. (Bambi and Mr Fink have a long history of of good natured rivalry, usually with Bambi ending up injured or coming second.)

I video'd the arm wrestling match but can't upload the video as the connection here is too slow. They locked hands at the dining table and started to strain. All of a sudden there was an organic sounding 'crack' and Bambi screamed. It appears Bambi has badly strained a tendon or muscle.