John Ruskin Brantwood Coniston

I owe my Arts and Crafts education to John Ruskin whose influence caused the establishment of two secondary schools of arts and crafts at the end of the 19th century. Mine in Moseley Birmingham and the other Whitechapel London. I feel great affinity with the arts and crafts movement and could have spent the entire day enjoying Brantwood. I will certainly visit again.

Former home of John Ruskin. Brantwood is the most beautifully situated house in the Lake District.. Brantwood is both a treasure house of historical importance and a lively centre of contemporary arts and the environment, welcoming in the region of 30,000 visitors a year.
Displays and activities in the house, gardens and estate reflect the wealth of cultural associations associated with Ruskin’s legacy – from the Pre Raphaelites and Arts and Crafts Movement to the founding of the National Trust and the Welfare State.
With its many contemporary exhibitions, concerts, courses and special events, together with its education work in the wider community, Brantwood continues in the Ruskin tradition today.
Browse the small but excellent bookshop, pursue crafts or artwork, enjoy some refreshment at Jumping Jenny restaurant with its fantastic terrace views, visit the Coach House Gallery with its wide range of crafts on sale, have a sail on the lake with either Coniston Launch or steam yacht Gondola, stroll in the shore side gardens, climb to Crag Head or bring a book, picnic or pillow to enjoy beneath a tree. What ever you do, be sure to allow yourself time to unwind and enjoy yourself. At Brantwood there is a wealth of art, a wealth of nature and a wealth of things to do!



looking from the house to Jumping Jenny tea rooms.

A magnificent Rhododendron just about to flower at Brantwood.
























Jumping Jenny Cafe at the entrance to Brantwood House, the building also housing John Ruskin's horse drawn carriage and a boat.

A Brantwood visitor, Female Chaffinch on the scrounge.


Coniston Water from Brantwood.

Coombs Wood Cumbria

Coombs Wood, Coombshead entrance. Map.

A short way along the walk the vista opens up revealing the verdant river Eden Valley.

A stand of conifers interspersed with deciduous regeneration flanking the start of the walk. The walk divides, by taking the left option the images below can be experienced.

Looking upstream.

Where the pathway reaches the Eden near a salmon fishing station. Clear limpid water over the red sandstone.


The party inspect the climb.

Came back down again.

Primroses.

Wood Anemone.

Forget-me-not flowers along the Eden riverside.



A clear illustration of hard red sandstone strata by the river Eden, Coombs Wood.

Tremendous tree root formations clinging to and in the rock formations.

Looking upstream from the River Eden-side pathway.

Evidence of climbing activity by the white chalk marks from clinging hands.

Rock climbers rest and contemplate the task on the bank of the River Eden.

At the end of the walk refreshments were enjoyed in The Fox and Pheasant Armathwaite.

River Tay Clouds May North Fife

These cloud formations never cease to amaze me, ever changing. Subsequent to this photo the formation created a different picture, in the space of a wee while all had changed.

Ominous foreboding clouds over the river Tay on the 5th.

Magnolia Newburgh North Fife.

Magnolia flowers Newburgh North Fife. I've watched this wonderful tree come into bloom for over a week, having been away a short while I've missed the best but it's still quite amazing.

Grasmere Lake District

Grasmere is a charming village right in the heart of the Lake District National Park in Cumbria, England. Within easy reach are the honeypot towns of Ambleside, Keswick, Hawkshead, Coniston, Bowness and Windermere.
Grasmere lake lies to the south of the village, around which there are some gentle walks for those that prefer the lower ground. For those that prefer a greater challenge, in Grasmere you're centrally situated for taking on the craggy peaks of the Scafell Pikes, Helvellyn, Skiddaw and the Langdale Pikes.
Grasmere was once the home of the famous poet William Wordsworth; today you can visit two of his former homes - Dove Cottage and Rydal Mount. Also in the centre of Grasmere is St. Oswalds Church, the churchyard of which contains the Wordsworth family graves.

Faeryland for refreshment, this is the place for gourmet teas, the views and the facility below.

What a vista, it's no wonder that Wordsworth and other notable Victorians favoured these parts.

Row boats are available for hire to cruise this idyllic spot.

A heron, normally quite skittish but seemingly happy to fish next to customers.

A cob swan who has lived in Grasmere for over 20 years knowing where the next meal might come from.

Skunk Cabbage, pretty the now but changes in a way that gives rise to its name.

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Photographs
Ref North Fife Blog
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Tree Lichens

Tree Lichens as seen on the road to Eskdalemuir. Eskdalemuir has one of the highest recorded rainfalls in the UK and true to form having driven 100 odd miles from North Fife with the sunroof open it began to rain at the head of the valley. Contrasted against the conifers are these lichen covered deciduous trees, also Larch which is a conifer that sheds its needles in the fall.

Lichen is not a single organism, but the result of a partnership (mutualistic symbiosis) between a fungus and an alga or cyanobacteria.

Both organisms benefit from this association as the algal(cyanobacterial partner) possess the green pigment chlorophyll, enabling them to use sunlight’s energy to make their own food from water and carbon dioxide through photosynthesis. They also provide vitamins to the fungus. Cyanobacteria can make amino acids directly from the nitrogen gas in the atmosphere.
The fungus, in turn, protects its partners from drying out and shades them from strong sunlight by enclosing the photosynthesizing partners within the body of the lichen.

Really quite beautiful.

James Hogg the Ettrick Shepherd

On my way to Samye-ling, Eskdalemuir last week I took refreshment at the Tushielaw Inn. The B709 from Innerleithen to Eskdalemuir, it's a delightful drive mostly single track with passing places though it's rare to meet other traffic.

Tushielaw Inn sits by Ettrick Water in the heart of James Hogg's country.

Black sheep at Ettrick, minded me of James Hogg the Ettrick shepherd.
In sheep, whiteness is not albinism but a dominant gene that actively switches colour production off. As a result, sheep blackness is recessive, and if a white ram and a white ewe are parents of a black lamb, both must be heterozygous for black, and then there is a 25% chance that the lamb will be black.



One of the supreme masterpieces of Romantic fiction and Scottish literature, The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner is a terrifying account of murder and amorality, and one man's descent into madness and despair.
The authoritative and lively introduction covers the full range of historical and religious themes and contexts and a fuller and more accurate consideration of the novel's relation to Romantic fiction than can be found elsewhere, as well as original discussion of the novel's treatment of fanaticism.
The notes identify the full range of the novel's historical, biblical, theological, topographical and literary allusions, and are both concise and fuller than in any other competing edition at this level.
Complete and up-to-date bibliography includes recent developments in Hogg scholarship.
Full glossary.
New to this edition

Introduction by Ian Duncan.
Updated and expanded Select Bibliography.
Revised Note on the Text,Chronology, and Glossary.
Entirely new and much fuller Explanatory Notes.
Reset text of the novel, checked against 1824 copy text and correcting previous errors.
To be published May 11th. Pre order here. The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner (Oxford World's Classics)