Tags
Absolute Write, Blog Chain, Christmas, December, Glenridding, Hills, Hotel, Lakes, Mountain, Pirates and Swashbucklers, The Lake District
So, on the AW forums there is a blog chain and the idea is that you get a slot in the month and, during that slot, you post about the topic given. So, it is now my turn and this month’s topic is ‘Home for the Holidays’. Given the season and the American nature of many of the members of AW, one of course must assume that the ‘Holiday’ referred to is ‘Christmas’.
This is a strange one for me because we generally don’t go ‘home’ for the Christmas. Home is where I live now and if I go anywhere for Christmas it is usually away from home. Ever since I got married and we acquired a dog, Christmas for us has been spent with my in laws in a hotel in the Lake District. This hotel, on the shores of Ullswater, a few miles from Penrith in the village of Glenridding, is a wonderful place to spend Christmas for a number of reasons:
1) The food. There is a lot of it. Many, many courses and not a sign of the endless piles of washing up that are the usual karmic reward for eating too much. The hotel used to do a seven course feast on Christmas day but they scaled it back to a mere five courses recently after too many guests exploded following the consumption of a final ‘wafer thin mint’. No, I am not exaggerating. Well, maybe a bit…
2) The isolation. Look up at the photograph on the top of this blog. I took that shot from the field at the back of the hotel. In any direction you look in from there, all you can see are hills and mountains. The photo to the left of this text shows more of them. In fact, the hills and mountains serve to block pretty much all mobile phone signals. Once you arrive there, you are cut off from the outside world very effectively. Well, unless you ask for a log in for the hotel’s free Wi Fi to get onto the internet… 🙂 If you want to be incommunicado, this is the place to be. In fact, I completed Gods of the Sea over last Christmas because it was easier to open a word file and do some typing than it was to log into the wi fi to check the internets. Productivity was improved! Also, it has been scientifically proven (by me, just now, I shall post the results of my extensive experiments in a paper I shall send to the Lancet) that bleak, isolated, pretty locations are not only restful but also pretty cool and very good for the brain.
3) Dog Friendliness. The hotel for us absolutely defines the gold standard of the concept of ‘dog friendliness’. Some hotels claim to aspire to this but they all fall short. This is a place where your dog can walk in, put his or her feet up on the reception counter, and be given a biscuit from the jar that is always behind the bar. When Santa Clause appears in the bar on Christmas morning to give all guests a present, there are presents for the dogs too. There are also lots of places to walk them and a lake to swim in. And yes, dogs do go swimming in the lake on Christmas day… Insane creatures that they are.
4) The walking. You go to the lakes to go walking. With your dog if you have one. There are lots of places to explore in the local area, some of them more hardcore than others. One year we made the ill judged decision to take a seven mile hike around the lake on Boxing Day in some of the worst ice and snow seen for many years. It’s a route we’ve done before and found easy, even after 3 days of eating our entire body weight in food every day, but the solid ice made the gentle rolling hills far more treacherous. Especially when you have a sure footed canine on a lead trying to pull you into the valley because ‘there’s some interesting smells over there’. Crampons and ice picks may have helped. A sled, a few more dogs and some time to train them to all pull in the same direction would have been ideal. This year, we intend to pay more attention to the weather report before we leave.
5) Finally, apropos of the above, there is one thing that makes going to the Lake District a fun and interesting Christmas experience and that is the fact that it is more likely to:
There are other reasons, many of which would take too long to adequetly explain here. The upshot of it all is that, while I have in the past enjoyed Christmas at home (both at our home, my parents’ home or that of my in laws) the experience of spending a relaxing Christmas in a hotel where the people doing all the work are being paid to do it is one certainly worth doing at least once in your life.
You can find other participants to this blog chain here:
Participants and posts: orion_mk3 – http://nonexistentbooks.wordpress.com (link to this month’s post) Ralph Pines – http://ralfast.wordpress.com/ (link to this month’s post) pyrosama – http://matrix-hole.blogspot.com/ (link to this month’s post) AbielleRose – http://stainedglassinthenight.wordpress.com/ (link to this month’s post) writingismypassion – http://charityfaye.blogspot.com/ (link to this month’s post) Domoviye – http://lets-get-happy.blogspot.com/ (link to this month’s post) AuburnAssassin – http://clairegillian.com/ (link to this month’s post) Areteus – https://lurkingmusings.wordpress.com/ (link to this month’s post) Diana Rajchel – http://blog.dianarajchel.com/ (link to this month’s post) Alynza – http://www.alynzasmith.blogspot.com/ (link to this month’s post) SuzanneSeese – http://www.viewofsue.blogspot.com/ (link to this month’s post) robeiae – http://thepondsofhappenstance.blogspot.com/ (link to this month’s post) SinisterCola – http://acgatesblog.wordpress.com/ (link to this month’s post) MamaStrong – http://inamamasworld.blogspot.com/ (link to this month’s post) kimberlycreates – http://www.kimberlycreates.com/ (link to this month’s post) Cath – http://blog.cathsmith.com/ (link to this month’s post)
Nancy Trausch said:
Very nice! I enjoyed reading this little snippet into your life.
Merry Christmas to you, Sarah and Eddie!
Nancy
D.A Lascelles said:
Thank you. And a Merry Christmas to all of you too (there will be proper bloggage on this at a more appropriate time… 🙂 )
Diane Carlisle said:
Love it! I feel like I was just on vacation with you. 🙂
Well, it was like being there. Happy Holidays.
D.A Lascelles said:
I’ll look for you when we get there, then 🙂
Thanks for the comment.
Charity said:
Sounds wonderful! Merry Christmas!
D.A Lascelles said:
And Merry Christmas to you too!
Suzanne Seese said:
Being from Northeast Ohio I generally don’t seek out snow. Just this morning I had a little taste of walking a dog with unsure footing. But snow is always welcome for Christmas and I envy your Christmas retreat.
D.A Lascelles said:
Well, it never gets so bad here as it would ever do somewhere like Ohio (or parts of Canada…) but last year was as bad as I ever want to see snow. The walk on Boxing day was a nightmare – mainly because there had been water running off the tops of the hills and flowing onto the paths which had frozen into solid, thick sheets which were impossible to walk on without slipping. I thought I’d taken a photo of it but can’t seem to find it. Will post if I do… Normal UK snow fall on a flat field with a dog who still tries to catch snowballs as if they are real balls is, however, fun 🙂
Sarah said:
Great post. For a brief moment while reading, I felt like I was there. What a magical place, and sounds like a dream. The pictures are stunning and the dogs are like a cherry on top of a sundae. 🙂
D.A Lascelles said:
Dogs are always fun 🙂
Glad you enjoyed the post!
ralfast said:
Happy dogs means happy dog owners. A finer holiday gift is hard to find. 😀
D.A Lascelles said:
They are always happy. But this place makes them happier 🙂 They do see it as one of their second homes…
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Alynza said:
Another former Ohioan here and I have to say that I do not miss the snow. Okay, maybe just a little up until Christmas, but then it needs to be gone! Good thing I live in the South now. 🙂
Nice post and was wonderful to read. (Cute pups too!)
D.A Lascelles said:
It’s so rare here that we do like to see more of it, even though it completely closes the country down (as it did last year). It rarely lasts more than a few days, though.
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alexp01 said:
Dogs are always good for a laugh 🙂
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Daniel Arnzen said:
It’s nice you found someplace that you’re comfortable bringing your dog. I love to have my dog with me at Christmas, but traveling with him is hard, and he sheds all over the place. It usually doesn’t stop us though. He’s part of the family.
D.A Lascelles said:
We have refused to book hotels because they claimed they were ‘dog friendly’ and their definition of the word was ‘your dog can sleep in your car’. He tends to go with us where ever we can take him and when we are away and can’t take him (such as going abroad) he stays in a very nice kennel.
Brandi said:
Sounds like a beautiful place! Having someone else clean up the holiday mess sounds fantastic too. 🙂
D.A Lascelles said:
It does help 🙂 I think it adds to the relaxation of Christmas (though does not detract from the post Christmas concerns about finances 🙂 )
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kimberlycreates said:
Love the pictures. What a wonderful place to holiday!
Claire Gillian said:
I always wanted to go to the Lake District and Cornwall and never made it either location. Very pretty. Maybe someday. Your dog is adorable, by the way.