November 24th, 2009
Judging by the emails I keep getting for winter holidays in foreign places, you’d think that we never see the sun in the UK. Yes it has been bad these last ten days in the Lakes with so much rain, but it didn’t stop our weekend party of friends enjoying good local walks in Whinlatter Forest; and to the top of Sale above Bassenthwaite where we had marvelous 360° views of the north-west fells.
The previous week though was something very different. Breakfast was on a sunny Belvedere terrace and over several days we had amazingly clear light, ideal for walks and photography. The three photos below show how the views from the Belvedere of Skiddaw and the marshes have changed so dramatically over the course of just 10 days – as sun was followed by continuous rain to create a new lake on the marshes!
Posted in Belvederes, Environment, Local news, The Larches | No Comments »
October 19th, 2009
We’ve been up to The Larches several times this month doing maintenance and gardening work; and have been reminded of Keats’ poem, Autumn:
Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness;
Close bosom friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how …
To bend with apples the moss’d cottage-trees
Autumn’s a great time to be in the Lakes and more people seem to recognise this. It’s good value with lower rates for staying and plenty of sun for every kind of activity – including apple and damson picking!
The pictures below were taken earlier in the month. The first is an early morning view from the Belvedere of the sky lit up over Keswick while a thin blanket of mist lies low over the marshes with Latrigg and Clough Head keeping watch beyond.
The second of the cottage with recently painted windows and exterior shows a beckoning Skiddaw in the background. When it is calm and clear like this, it’s hard to resist the urge to set out for the summit!
Posted in Belvederes, The Larches | No Comments »
October 4th, 2009
This last month we’ve been putting finishing touches to the path that leads from the cottage to the Belvedere. We wanted to recycle old materials if possible, so what could we use? And what was the problem?
Locking in the top of the path to the start of the stairway was always going to be tricky as we’d built the path a year before the Belvedere was even started and before we had decided how exactly the decking round the Belvedere would be linked to the path.
The result? The stairway down to the path was almost twice the width of the path and in limited light someone might step off the stairway – not onto the path – but onto a steep slope and lose their balance. The path needed widening. What could we use? Enter the old sandstone hearth (see top picture above).
This was making way for a new oak floor in a Victorian house of a similar vintage to The Larches but had been broken into separate pieces to enable its removal.
Measuring up showed we had a near perfect match (see 2nd picture) for the start of the path which could be then feathered into the existing path by adjusting the margin and using slate chippings. A great result! Good too that our first guests after installation were encouraged last week to have pre-dinner drinks in the Belvedere on six out of their seven nights here!
Posted in Belvederes, Recycling, The Larches | No Comments »
August 5th, 2009
In Tuesday’s Guardian (G2 – Arts and Architecture Section, 2 August 2009) a three page article with lots of photos praises Britain’s highest building – the marvellous Hafod Eryri Visitor Centre and mountain railway terminus at the top of Snowden (1,085 metres). With a stone clad steel frame, it was completed recently – replacing a small concrete shack – at a cost of £8.4 million and has quickly settled in to become a natural part of this craggy top. With stunning views and accommodation for staff, it has to withstand winds of up to 150 mph and is closed down through the winter.
Reading Jonathan Glancy’s account of the lure of Snowden for visitors since the 1780s has made me realise that ‘rooftop’ buildings like this are the natural bedfellows of belvederes. Both rise above the hurly burly of life below and have superb views. The difference is that for the former the view may be incidental while for belvederes it is always central.
Below are five more examples of ‘rooftop’ buildings, which are some of those now included in a new photo gallery on this lakelandbelvedere.com site. The photo opposite is of the Visitor Centre in Dinosaur Park in Utah, but there are many more to discover and put on the map. Why not send in a photo of any example you’ve found in whatever continent? If it’s a true ‘rooftop’ building, we’ll include it in the gallery with a credit! Email the image with a short description to ian@lakelandbelvedere.com/
To meet the criteria they must, as well as having commanding height and views, be well designed, fit for purpose, integrated into the surrounding landscape and able to provide overnight shelter and warmth against the cold. A tent or overnight snow-hole is ruled out whatever its position!
1. Dinosaur Park Visitor Centre, Utah USA [1,530 m]
2. Eco house, Isle of Mull Scotland [100 m]
3. Mountain grass house above village, Simien Mountains, Ethiopia [3,900 m]
4. Frontier post shelter on the ‘Rooftop of Africa’ ridge (used in civil war) [4,400 m]
5. Shack with weather vane above Amari valley overlooking Psiloritis, Crete [c 700 m]
Posted in Belvederes, Environment | No Comments »
June 29th, 2009
We’re in New York this weekend seeing our son’s prospective in-laws and helping with the wedding preparations. It’s always good to see what’s going on here, but there’s a particular interest for The Larches, because probably the most famous and well frequented belvedere in the world is in the city’s Central Park.
The Belvedere Castle stands beside the Turtle pond and there are already two great photos of it and other information on this lakelandbelvedere website. It’s nice though to find it and be able to pinpoint it on the ground – as the photo opposite shows! For the record it stands at an altitude of only 17 metres; the lakeland belvedere is at 113 metres.
Posted in Belvederes, The Larches | No Comments »
