Levens and around on a Saturday

A traditional Cumbrian seat

Hincaster tunnel - a disused canal way, opened 1819

Historic Low Levens farm

Spring has sprung

Rail replacement buses

With the rail crash the other week and the usual round of engineering works, there's been no shortage of rail replacement buses around here of late. Saturday saw some for First group on the A65, although I'm at a loss as to what train service they might be filling in for.

Last week I saw a local bus I'd never seen before bound for Low Gill, up the valley from here. Given the the railway that used to run through the valley stretched from here up to to Low Gill, where it joins the West Coast Main Line, I wondered if it might a Beeching Rail Replacement Bus Service?

Recent photos

Lune Valley

Sunset at home

Morecambe Bay

Cartmel Priory (today)

Cartmel Village Shop - Home of Sticky Toffee Pudding! (today)

Coffee culture and country classes

Two days in a row now I've found myself in the trendy, well let's face it, only trendy cafe cum bar in town. It's unheard of; before I know it I'll be Lunesdale Valley barfly association. No, perhaps not, however it's remarkable that the coffee culture has pervaded even the deepest darkest recesses of Cumbria. £2 a cup for a mocha. Jolly fine stuff I'll admit, but around here that's like a King's ransom; in which case the King must be doing very nicely indeed. Not to rest on our laurels, or should that be coffee beans, the town has even gained a 'Fair Trade' status. Trendy coffee guzzling and with a 21st century sense of public conscience to boot. Remarkable.

Supping a cuppa also provides a particularly fine situation for people watching. The sceptical might falsely believe there's little of such a pastime of which to be indulged in a town of 3,500 people, but they'd be wrong. There's a full dichotomy of the rural classes on display for social commentators to analyse comprising a complex strata of aspirational and actual socio-economic placements.

My favourite specimens from the past couple of days have to be the aspiring county set. Now to explain for the more urban based readers of this blog, the county set are the often landed gentry demographic who seem to pull off living very comfortably while not appearing to actual work a great deal. Understandably this may be seen as something of an attraction for those of an appearance conscious nature and lo and behold if my cafe cum bar haunt wasn't full of a rowdy group of such county set wannabes. They dressed in a quasi-county fashion to fit the image, lacking though the two hundred quid wellies or saville row tailory that's reserved for the real deal. The conversation was exceptionally boisterous; they had a presence they wanted to be felt. What japes! As with so many things in life however there's no comparison with the real thing and their efforts felt strained rather than the effortless ya-hoos of bona fide country gents. Still, the world is full of images and if it keeps them happy then carry on, carry on. There's entertainment and show at every table!

Sunday

Today's been a quiet day spent writing on the whole interspersed only with a walk into town where we managed to encounter to end of familiar faces. Here are a couple of images from the walk by the river:

The wind it doth not abate

Although no longer at damaging speeds the wind continues unabated, seen here lashing the promenade at Morecambe today:

Yorkshire Dales history

While tracking down a book on google I was presented a link to the 'Out of Oblivion' website, which as the electronic version of the 'Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority Historic Environment Record' charts all facets of the area's history.

Some random browsing reveals all manner of historical nuggets. I never knew for instance that the Sedbergh Trust Turnpike was set up in 1761 to establish toll roads in the area. I suppose back in those days constructing a road would have required some considerable effort for which a financial return was sought.

KL is just off the edge of the map but as we venture into the Dales quite often it's good to discover what factors has lead to the area taking on its current form.

Busy skies over the lune valley today

Apache Longbow helicopter spotted heading down the valley


Various shots of Tornado aircraft and Apache Longbow helicopter

Some of Tuesday with recollections of Friday

Sunny again today. Readers not from the local area may be somewhat perplexed as to this apparent fascination of mine with the appearance of the glowing orb. I must admit the near perpetuity of rainfall recently has been perplexing me as even in this much watered corner of the UK is receiving a good deal more in the way of rainfall than normal.

As normal my late-night writing shift meant a late rise today, although I was awoken to the announcement that we were all going for a walk. A quick glance outside explained why: blue skies, broad sunshine and a continuation of the mild weather that's become synonymous with this winter.

Off to Barbon then; locally pronounced Baa-bun, although the 'Keeping up appearances' set prefer it by its upper crust title of Bar-bonn, which probably exists if you visit the correct German city. A trudge through a wood and along a fell side later and we were all feeling much the better for it.

It's raining now of course. We couldn't manage a whole day of fine weather, perish the thought, and the forecast is for more of the gales that so hampered my journey down to London last Friday. Just as well I'm not making weekly visits as I'd likely be facing a repeat performance.

Damaged overhead lines at Oxenholme station limited trains to a single track and in an area where points aren't too thick on the ground the delays quickly build up. My train had to wait for two north bound services to pass Penrith before it could proceed. The wasn't without entertainment. Two trucks with some special rail attachment slowly passed the station doing I'm not entirely sure what, while when an engineer presumably flicked a switch in a control box for the overhead lines there was a great flash and crackle as electricity arced across the gantry. It must be broken after all; at least they're not making it up.

South Lakes weather cam

One of the Christmas additions to the array of gadgets hooked up to my laptop's several but now clearly inadequate number of USB ports is a webcam; a gadget I've fancied having for quite some time. Although I've not yet looked in to setting up an automatically refreshing cam, I can easily take stills with it and share the local weather with the world from outside my window. Here's my first such meteorological contribution: