Wander in Wet Woods

 

Acorn advance

A meeting place to exchange Christmas presents in, as they say 'a Covid secure manner' presented an opportunity to take a wander through Serpentine Woods near Kendal and potentially a journey through the alphabet.  A map and clues exist as to what one might find however we were rather unprepared, but happily not for the weather, being kitted out with wellies and waterproofs . The first sculpture was easy to spot for it starts the path in the photo above and  A -"will grow one day into a great tree"

"B has he most beautiful wings you will see".  The winter trees form a nice backdrop for this colourful butterfly

Count the legs and what do we see a centipede on a tree.  Fun fact you'll never find one with 100 legs because they have an odd number of pairs and those legs move fast.

but not as fast as a deer.  We spotted three more letters on the alphabet but missed two had a distraction or two and the rest and as Eric Morecambe said of his piano playing "they are the right notes but not necessarily in the right order"

Despite the dull day there was still colour in the woods. This fern was almost like a Christmas display. Ferns absorb nutrients from their leaves before shedding them and all the nutrients have been taken underground.  The snowy white fonds remains until they die and disappears.

Oh look we have found a ladybird. Hurray.

And a pheasant, not the weather for sitting.

Nature can produce her own living sculptures.  This Burr Knot almost seems to have little clasped hands beneath it.

Mr Rat with his curly tail.

Trying to work out how to make a door.  There are quite a few of these shelters throughout the woods and every one had to be  one had to be explored by a tiny person.

Eventually ending with a ring of the Jingle Bells.   We saw a lot of the alphabet but not all and one (the umbrella) we were told by a friendly passer by was undergoing repairs.

Time to go our separate ways home and leave the wood behind, it is a popular place for a stroll with dogs or children.  Here is someone who visited in Summer although the weather looks similar.

One Hundred Years

Sarah Alice Gardner

Today would have been my mother's 100th birthday but here she is at 23 in her Fire Brigade uniform when she was stationed in Kendal, Westmorland (today Cumbria) in the war.  Leading Firewoman Gardner.  The caption on the back of the photo says "1943 at Kendal over the river near the Kendal Fire Station.".  I think the Aynam Road Fire Station is in the background and can be seen here.  Not only is the fire station now elsewhere but she looks to be standing by lock gates which I presume was part of the Lancaster Canal which at one time ran right into Kendal and was closed to commercial traffic in 1947.

Sarah 'Sadie' Gardner and Charles 'Alf' Pugh

My parents met in Kendal when they were both posted there and my father used to enjoy saying that Hitler brought them together.  Here they are in March 1944 in the village of Sedgwick.  I would hazard a guess they have walked along the canal towpath. I wonder if the tree is still there.

Happy Birthday Mum

River Kent

The River Kent starts its life in the Kentmere valley, here it is weaving its way through the town of Kendal, about nine miles away, in benign manner.  Not so recently, the winter storms saw the water level rise, and keep rising, eventually flooding the riverside walk and the houses alongside it.  The many bridges that cross the Kent

had to be checked for safety, one closed,

This footbridge is the most modern of the bridges.  The Kent is a short river (20 miles) but one of the fastest flowing in the spring wending its way over weirs and waterfalls and through villages

but here it is on a still autumnal day placid in the sunlight passing through the Levens valley while

sheep graze

and goats keep a curious eye open.

Kent Viaduct at Arnside

Eventually it will reaches Morecambe Bay, mingle with the salt water 

 and head out with the tide into the Irish Sea.

 "You could not step twice into the same river" (Heraclitus)

An entry to ABC Wednesday, a journey through the alphabet, this week sojourning at K here

 

By The River

Kendal's Miller Bridge spanning the River Kent  In April 1818 the Lancaster Canal Committee asked Francis Webster to submit plans for a replacement bridge here.  The plans were accepted and within the year he had contracted the builders and the three arched dressed stone bridge was complete.  They have been digging up the road and then fiddling around with stone sets in the  main shopping street in Barrow for longer than that time span.  If only it was possible to time warp a few Victorian in to help them finish the job.

But returning to the peace of the River Kent where the trees are springing into life.  It was a pleasant stroll by the riverside,


and calling in at the Abbot Hall art gallery where the Barbara Hepworth ovals, Trezion, stands between it and the Kendal Museum of Lakeland Life. I liked the contrast between of this form and the old Parish Church in the background.

ABC Wednesday - Kendal Mint Cake

Kendal, home of the mint cake, which is not really a cake, its a minty slab of sugar.  Kendal is known as "the auld grey town" but this is because of its grey limestone buildings not its mint cake, which comes in white, brown or chocolate covered slab.  The complete recipe is supposed to be a secret and the story is that Joseph Wiper intended to make some glacier mints in 1869 but left the mixture boiling, and when he returned it had started to 'grain' and become cloudy instead of clear, the rest, as they say, is history.

Wiper retired to Victoria in British Columbia in 1910 and his son set up a shop and sold Wiper's Mint Cake, which was supplied to Shackleton's 1914-17 Transarctic Expedition. In the days before energy bars and isotonic drinks this was the ultimate sugar energy hit.

The most famous of the expedition carrying Kendal mint cake was Sir Edmund Hillary's to Mount Everest where, as it says on the back of Romney's Kendal Mint , it was carried to the summit on 29 May 1953 and eaten by him and  Tenzing Norgay.  The original order for the mint cake was last minute request and was supplied in seven days, in high altitude packs.  Sweets were still rationed after the war and the staff gave up their sweet ration coupons to comply with the law, which the Ministry of Food later refunded.

In the shops of Kendal and the Lake District there is always Kendal Mint Cake in gift packs, usually with pretty pictures of the Lake District on the front, ready for people to buy and press on unsuspecting friends. It is something you either love or hate, depending on your love of sugar.

There are three main manufacturers of Mint Cake each jostling to claim themselves the authentic one.  Romney's (named after the painter),

Wilson's which is called the Original Kendal Mint Cake who started production in New Inn Yard in 1913 and which is still hand produced by boiling slowly in open copper pans.

It says on the back it is "delicious, nourishing and sustaining".  Yes I got this from Booths Supermarket today, I have not had it for years. My tooth rot of preference is Clarnico Mint Creams for the energy boost of morning mountain climbs.

Lastly we come to Quggins, "The Home of Kendal Mint" cake

"suppliers of energy and therefore very popular with outdoor pursuits like climbing and walking"
 They also produce rum butter, another Lake District delicacy, which is a whole other story.

Here is Jack Dee's take on Kendal Mint Cake.

Keen to see more words beginning with the letter K?  Jump over to ABC Wednesday for lots more.