The new year is a great time to reflect, and I am starting this one by remembering last year. Although in recent years, the tourist season in the Lake District is getting longer, with visitors even from Japan coming as late as November and as early as March, things are still generally quieter in the winter months. This leaves lots of time in January for my work at Kendal College, supporting learners three days a week, until February brings a half-term getaway to a tiny miner’s cottage in Wales, for yoga by a cosy log fire and lots of blustery winter walks.
Last year also brought a welcome return to Kyoto from March to April for lots of cherry blossom, delicious food, beautiful temples and gardens, reunions with friends, “live house” visits, and yet more yoga. Oh yes, and work: brushing up on my language skills and talking about potential programmes and itineraries for students with former colleagues and current educators once the main business of the day – catching up! – was out of the way.
Back in the Lakes for May and June, getting planning underway for a September programme for students from Tokyo University, while getting ready for summer bookings for solo travellers and small groups. Early summer is my favourite time for recces, and last year had two crackers taking in Grasmere, both accessible on Stagecoach Cumbria buses from Kendal: one from Grasmere to Great Langdale via Easedale Tarn, descending via Stickle Ghyll to New Dungeon Ghyll Inn for lunch on the terrace (#599 or #555 to Grasmere; #516 direct from Langdale to Kendal); and the other from Rosthwaite in upper Borrowdale to Grasmere, via Greenup Edge and Far Easedale (#555 Kendal to Keswick; #78 from Keswick to Rosthwaite; #599 or #555 from Grasmere to Kendal).
Naturally, with walks like these accessible by bus, there’s little or no reason to get the car out. Still, with the £2 cap on bus fares, introduced initially in January 2023 and still going strong more than a year later, it’s been easier for everyone to get out and about by bus. In fact, 2023 really was the year of the bus, with community buses helping visitors staying at camp sites around the Ullswater valley access formerly tricky-to-get-to places like lovely Lowther Castle, and a summer shuttle bus service ferrying people from Ravenglass to Wasdale – all part of determined effort across the Lake District National Park to attract and disperse visitors across Cumbria and to help them do it sustainably.
Things got busy in July with three days hosting a group of four wonderful women, determined to experience – not just see – the Lakes whole-heartedly. Their tour highlight – and mine! – was a day’s weaving at Heron Corn Mill in the pretty village of Beetham, led by Slovakian artist, Erika Sojkova Grime, using Erika’s exquisite hand-spun, non-dyed yarns, made wholly from local fleeces. Next came a magical day out walking in Wordsworth’s footsteps from Dora’s Field in Rydal, along the Coffin Trail to Dove Cottage, via Allan Bank in Grasmere, and Loughrigg Terrace back to Rydal, in the company of a mum and her daughter – Mum having come from Japan to holiday with her daughter, then a student in the UK. Mum turned out to be a blogger and influencer, writing about her 12-day Lake District odyssey for Japanese online magazine Mi-Mollet. The special thing about all these guests is just how ready they were to take their time in the Lake District, rather than shoot through on the way to somewhere else.
End of July? Full if somewhat guilty disclosure: four days of music and merriment in the fields at Kendal Calling with family, doing no work whatsoever!
Then on into August, spent for the most part in preparation for the arrival of Tokyo University students in September. Coming to study sustainable tourism in the English Lakes Unesco WHS, the students’ jampacked itinerary depends on the kind cooperation of a whole host of amazing people and practitioners from the Lake District business, academic, charity, and farming communities. It takes months to plan, so I was heartily grateful for the arrival of dear friends from Japan, and an opportunity to take a busman’s holiday, showing off the Lake District. Getting people around sustainably by bus, boat, train and on foot is what I’m all about, but introducing horses to the mix was a first!
The rest of September was for settling back into a new academic year at Kendal College, before October, when it was time to meet and greet another set of students: gastronomy students at Ritsumeikan University, studying with me online again in 2023 throughout November and December, focusing on local food culture and sustainability and farming issues in the Lake District. Teaching online is always hard, as so much about what is here is about being here, letting the place speak for itself. Time then to brush up my rudimentary film production skills, preparing several short films mid-course and one longer film at the end to show off the Lake District. Naturally, no-one needs to know just how many fluffed out-takes make even one minute of film footage…!
