A taste of Cumbria

To West Cumbria, to visit family.  First, to Carlisle, and more wonderful Georgian houses.  Here a whole street with perfectly preserved fan-lights and door pilasters.  I particularly love the chequered brickwork - and the way the car matches the door!  However, though this looks smart as paint, the street adjoins one of those seriously run-down areas that blight northern towns.

Visiting Linton Tweeds, I find myself drawn to this graphic black and white weave - suggestive of high-rise blocks.  I am also drawn to the two for one offer on skirt lengths.  That is two different metres of tweed for fifteen pounds.  Linton have an interesting  client base, having supplied Chanel herself.  Check them out at Linton on-line

Then to Maryport, where my mother has lived for many years in a nursing-home.  A view first of Mote Hill with the flood plain awash and then of the harbour from Mote Hill.  Ancient peoples used the hill as a strategic lookout over the River Ellen, long before the arrival of the Romans. 

These views show the tide in and high water.  It is quite a different scene at low water, with acres of mud.

Some ten miles north of Maryport is Beckfoot, where I took my shore walk.  Looking north, an uninterrupted view of the Solway, with not another person in sight.

Amazingly, Enid from Wigan left a comment to say that she knew my mother's expression - "like a padding-can,"  for an untidy room.  I am fascinated by the incidence of very broad Cumbrian - for example, a checkout girl using "Yan" for "one" to another worker.  I do feel the curators of the British Library exhibition might easily have located some more vivid samples by not interviewing the people, but by eavesdropping on conversations between native speakers.   Another common Cumbrian expression: "clarty" -  sticky.

Some knitting:  a little hat in J&S jumper-weight, owing something to Kate Davies' most recent design, largely because I was in Cumbria and my reference book in Essex.  It fits me, but again suggests a swimming hat more than anything.

Finally, this week's culinary offering.  I like nothing better than to go into my kitchen and  put together something tasty from almost nothing.  This is what comes of combining two stale hot cross buns, buttered and lightly spread with orange marmalade, with two eggs beaten with a little milk and sugar.  Baked for about 35 minutes, it rises to a light, orange flavoured pudding, which is lovely with a blob of vanilla ice-cream.