Blog’s first century

August 3rd, 2011

We set out in June 2009 to produce a blog posting for The Larches’ website every week or so. We reached our first century of blogs on 12th July, so it’s time for a bit of statistics; and for letting our readers know what we know about them!

Using Google Analytics we’ve looked at the period 1st June 2009 to 2nd August 2011. We have excluded just three days in early May of this year, when we received a hostile attack on the site from hackers and when almost 1600 automated visits were recorded, with hundreds of spam comments.

For this 26 months’ period we have had over 2,250 unique visitors, who have made almost 4,600 visits and had over 15,000 page views of the site and blogs.

Not surprisingly the vast majority of visitors were from the UK with 3648 visits. The USA was next with 488 followed by Canada 55 and Brazil 43. It’s certainly not in the top echelons of websites but nevertheless has been useful and read by a sizeable community, including people staying at the cottage.

What have we written about? We have eleven blog categories and below are listed the numbers in each category. As any one blog can be categorized under more than one heading, the totals in the list naturally exceed 100.

  • Environment 57
  • The Larches 48
  • Local news 40
  • Walking and fells 26
  • International 22
  • Wildlife 18
  • Seasons 15
  • Belvederes 12
  • Recycling 12
  • Technology 9
  • Culture 6

We have provided details of what is going on at The Larches and locally and have linked this to wider issues affecting the environment, walking, wildlife and the seasons. We have wanted also to give an international perspective. We’d love to know what you think about the balance of subjects covered; and whether there are other areas we need to include or where more coverage would be welcome.

We’ve been delighted to receive pictures, photos and comments from visitors. Many thanks to these contributors. For this special century celebration blog why not tell us your favourite blog posting from The Larches by just clicking in the “Comments” (or “No Comments”) section below? Our blog and photos on the November 2009 floods probably has received the most hits.

Posted in Technology, The Larches | No Comments »

Web ad or card box?

July 12th, 2011

The digital era is impacting on everything we know – shopping, travel, politics, news, social networking, film, music, house purchase, learning, books, advertising; and now the web is increasingly going mobile. According to the Internet Advertising Bureau 41% of the UK population have a smartphone. By 2020 it’s thought there will be 10 billion mobile devices worldwide.

This revolution is particularly affecting communications and the transmission of information, shaking up industries like newspapers, publishing, book selling and telecoms. But will all the old ways just wither away? We think not and here’s an example in advertising of what we mean.

We like people to stay at The Larches because it’s a great place with an intriguing garden and belvedere. We tell the world about the cottage and facilities through our website and via the agents. But now we have hit on a simple non-digital idea: a card box for passers-by at the front of the cottage. The photo opposite shows the box by the road with the belvedere in the background at the top of the fellside garden.

Anyone interested in staying here and liking the look of the place can simply take a card with the address, postcode and booking details. A blended solution, mixing the old with the new!

And what’s so special about the card box? Made of recycled wood, it has a 20 mms thick perspex block at the front, enabling the cards to be seen but crucially kept set back from a possible wet front. [The close up photo below shows the rain on the lid.]

The lid lifts up to enable you to get your hand in to take the card; and there is a 15 mms deep wooden block above the sloping roof, which sheds the rain away from the hinge and area where there might be leakage.

Screwed to the gate post, the back base is made from waste oak flooring, with glue channels at the rear to allow the rain to drain down behind. All very practical and environmentally sound! We will have to explore patenting it.

PS We’re not forgetting the digital world completely! Just type “Lakeland belvedere” into Google maps and you’ll get full directions, telephone etc for The Larches. And if you have stayed at the cottage, you can write a review.

You can click on twitter.com/thelarches to get our latest tweets.

We’re also looking at the use of QR (Quick Response) coding with these cards. QR barcodes are easily created and can provide information (URL, location, contact number etc), which can be read instantly by a smartphone.

Posted in Belvederes, Local news, Recycling, Technology, The Larches | No Comments »

Clearest day of the year?

July 2nd, 2011

I’ll admit to a little exaggeration sometimes, but last Thursday evening the light did look something special as I was finishing some bracken clearing above the Belvedere. “But no. I’ll not rush for the camera”, I thought, “it’s probably my imagination.”

Then a short while later there’s a knock on the front door and our two friends Ann and Elizabeth from Cockermouth are there in time for an evening meal. They had been on the A66 on the way back from a day out. “Have you seen the light out there?” they asked. “It’s been so amazingly clear as we travelled west. Can’t remember anything like this!”

With this endorsement what could I do but rush up the fellside with the camera before the light had gone? The photo below is taken from on top of the sedum roof of the Belvedere, with the Seldom Seen hamlet in the foreground and the shadows cast by the westering sun picking out the sinews and structure of the Skiddaw massif.

The ospreys have nested on the marshes this year instead of in Dodd wood and their nest is just visible from the Belvedere in the sunlit fields on the other side of the A66. Tell us what you think of the photo!

Tags: ,
Posted in Belvederes, The Larches, Wildlife | No Comments »

Summer programme complete

June 27th, 2011

Despite the bad weather over most of the last 6 weeks, we’ve succeeded in completing a number of smaller jobs, which needed doing after the big work of re-roofing and painting the exterior was completed in March. This has included planting a number of new shrubs and flowers after the cold winter; oiling garden furniture and painting the weather battered railings on the belvedere decking.

For several years we have watched as the coping stones on the top of the left front garden wall have slipped further downhill and earth has dropped into the road. Now the containing wall has been rebuilt by Rob and looks set good for another twenty five years. (See photo above).

One advantage here is that the front of the wall has now been pushed back towards the house about four inches. It may not sound much, but it gives that little bit more to the road width when people are parked outside The Larches. Lorries and waste removal vehicles will find it that much easier to reach the top of the ravine road.

Two years ago I promised myself I would cut back every year the high ferns on the steep bank above the large ground floor back bedroom. I failed last year but this June I managed to avoid the rain to get the work done – and before Midsummer Day. It helps to bring more light into the house and gives a better view of wildlife and birds.

Although we have not seen the red squirrels in the garden for several weeks, there have been recent sightings 100 metres down the road and in the copse opposite the house, where the footpath leads down to Thornthwaite Church.

Posted in The Larches, Wildlife | No Comments »

Big Society’s at Seldom Seen

June 27th, 2011

“There is no such thing as society”, Prime Minister Thatcher informed us back in a 1987 article for Woman’s Own. Now there’s been a change of tack in Tory thinking and everyone is trying to understand what Prime Minister Cameron’s ‘Big Society’ actually means.

Less regulation? More street parties? Less public services? More self help? No national forests? More competition in the NHS? Less weight watching? Smaller populations in prisons and psychiatric hospitals? There’s no end to the list.

When you come to think about it, well …. it’s just embarrassing! No wonder thirty learned professors, who are panel members of the Arts and Humanities Research Council, plan to resign because of their Chairman’s decision (Guardian, 19 June) to make the ‘Big Society’ a subject for serious research and grants.

The Government plans shortly to announce what the Big Society really means in its White Paper on Public Services Reform. I’ m not expecting any great revelations.

However we know the Coalition Government is introducing cuts to public services on an unprecedented scale at every level. These will affect all of us, however hard councils, voluntary bodies and others try to introduce efficiencies.

Back on the ground in Seldom Seen last week it all seemed suddenly clear. The arrival of the Big Society means I must now give up all hope of the water gully on the steep ravine road above The Larches ever being cleared by the Council. It was a prospect I’d quietly nursed since the November 2009 floods.

The Government’s answer to our local community’s problem is simple. If a job needs doing, do it yourself! Which is why in the photo below, I’m at the end of a hard day’s work with a scythe and hoe having cleared thick undergrowth, earth and a blocked pipe to keep rainwater from flooding down the road. Tough luck though if you are too old or infirm to do this or have kids to look after.

Does it matter? Well in winter’s freezing conditions the road outside The Larches is like a steep ice rink, which can easily land you with a broken arm or ankle. You need a hospital? Simple. Just get on your bike!

Posted in Environment, Local news, The Larches | No Comments »

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »