By a Mossy Gnome

Brigantes?

Ingleborough, originally uploaded by byamossygnome.com.

Yes, those are two people dressed as ancient Brits in plaid togas. Their faces are painted in blue and white and they are brandishing plastic swords as they stride across the summit plateau of Ingleborough. They are evidently doing the Yorkshire Three Peaks walk, and their costumes suggest that they might be doing it for charity. Unless of course they always dress as ancient Brits. I thought at first they might be Scottish but their accents were northern English, so they must be Brigantes, who used to live on the summit of Ingleborough two thousand years ago. The foundations of their round houses can be found scattered around the summit, although most walkers are too busy marching to the summit cairn and back again to notice.

The walled garden

Holehird, originally uploaded by byamossygnome.com.

There is something satisfying about a walled garden. Even better if it is surrounded by mountains. This is part of the Holehird Gardens complex - indeed the heart of it. It was only after many years of visiting the Lake District that I discovered the existence of this place. If you want to find it, take the road out of Windermere towards Ambleside until you reach a little roundabout which offers you the choice of travelling towards Troutbeck and Ullswater. Before reaching either, you will see signs for the Cheshire Home and Holehird, which is next to it. It is well worth a visit.

Gardens and mountains

Holehird Gardens, originally uploaded by byamossygnome.com.

Holehird Gardens, perched on a hillside, overlooks Windermere and a wide view of the Lakeland mountains. There is Wetherlam framed by some of the bright rhododendrons and azaleas flowering at this time of year. You need to climb to the upper reaches of the garden to see this, but there are benches to rest on when you arrive, and views like this one. I will leave to your imagination the birdsong from the surrounding trees and perfume from yellow azaleas.

“I don’t like fish”

Yew Tree Tarn, originally uploaded by byamossygnome.com.

I don’t like fish, admitted the fisherman. He enjoys catching them, though, and his wife eats them, but that evening the fishermen were only catching small ones and putting them back. Tiny fish kept leaping out of the water to grab insects, but the bigger ones had more sense. They stayed on the bottom of Yew Tree Tarn, relaxing in the warm weather. What we need is some rain to bring them to the surface, the fisherman said. Perhaps the Lake District will see rain again soon, and the fisherman who doesn’t like fish will be able to take some home for his wife.

View? What view?

Waterhead, originally uploaded by byamossygnome.com.

View? What view? That bunch of old hills and that yellow-looking sky and water? Oh, alright - gold. Or maybe copper-coloured. Who cares?  Look, I’m busy. I’ve got feathers to preen. If I don’t sort them out I’ll sink like a leaky boat when I’m floating along. This is far more important. And when I’ve finished tidying myself up, give me a sandwich. Or else I’ll start waddling towards you and hiss at you.

A brief escape from the traffic

Wetherlam, originally uploaded by byamossygnome.com.

For years I’ve been driving past this view of Wetherlam and thinking: “I must take a picture of that one day.” Finally, I did. Normally driving round the bendy roads, which twist and turn and swoop up and down hill, and watching out for other traffic, takes all the attention. There is nowhere to stop and admire the hills without holding up a long line of cars - until you reach a small, discarded quarry by the side of the road between Ambleside and Skelwith Bridge. If you spot it in time, pull in and enjoy the view

Holehird

Holehird, originally uploaded by byamossygnome.com.

I had been visiting the Lake District for many years before discovering Holehird Gardens. They are next to the Cheshire Home on the road from Ambleside towards the Kirkstone Pass. There the visitor can enjoy the beautiful gardens, lovingly tended by volunteers from the Lakeland Horticultural Society, against a background of Lake District Mountains. There is no café, though - but perhaps that would make it too perfect!

Sambo's Grave

Reminder of the slave trade, originally uploaded by byamossygnome.com.

Sambo (or Samboo) was a real person, an African slave who lies buried in a field in a now remote place near Morecambe called Sunderland Point.   It wasn’t always remote.  Once upon a time it was an important western English port, where cotton and sugar were unloaded.  It was also involved in the slave trade.

As you approach the single track road which winds across the mud flats there are warnings that at high tide it is covered by the sea.  Cattle on the road look indignant or puzzled that you should want to drive where they are standing.   It is a bleak part of the world.  It is over twenty years since I last visited it, and then one was likely to find fresh flowers on the grave.   Now school children are taken to visit the grave, and have left offerings there.  Affectionate messages to Sambo from young children are written in indelible felt-tip pen on pebbles.   A tiny toy train and car lie among decorated stones, and a red silk rose.

We should not forget the horrors of slavery in those times, but similarly we should not forget that slavery continues today in its modern incarnation of people trafficking.

It is I, the enchanted bench…

High Close, originally uploaded by byamossygnome.com.

Can you hear that faint, murmuring sound, just beneath the song of the birds in the woodland around you and the bleating of lambs in the field? It is I, the enchanted bench in the gardens at High Close.

Come and sit here and listen to the birds and the breeze in the trees. Look at this lovely scene, of curved hills, stone walls, woods and fields. Smell the perfume the bluebells surrounding you. It is so peaceful here. You are falling under my spell. You are feeling sleepy.... It is so peaceful here, that you do not want to leave. You will stay here forever, on the enchanted bench, unable to leave the magic garden. Oh alright then. Maybe not forever. We enchanted benches are rather given to exaggeration. But you will stay here at least until you feel like looking for a cafe, or going to see if the ice cream van is still there at the White Moss Common car park.

There must have been a fairy wedding here

Lakeland wedding, originally uploaded by byamossygnome.com.

There is something of a Secret Garden about the grounds at High Close, beside the Victorian Youth Hostel between Grasmere and Elterwater.  They would make a suitable setting for a fairy wedding, which appeared to have taken place there at the weekend.   When I arrived, Oberon and Titania must have just taken flight with their gossamer wings, accompanied by their guests, for the wedding reception at the Youth Hostel.  A buzz of conversation came from that direction, and the sound of younger elves and pixies playing football.  All that remained was this wonderful arch, decorated with flowers, home-made figures and birds, iridescent butterflies and fresh strawberries threaded and draped around the arch and on the branches of some surrounding trees.