Keswick & boring moving stuff.

The move is creeping ever-closer...

After my initial burst of activity (packing some stuff, moving some stuff to the parents, buying a new car, writing the old car off and finding a new place to live), I've not really done anything for a week or so and I still need to work out how to fit the rest of my worldly belongings into a Nissan Micra - I have a policy of "if it doesn't fit, it's not coming". But equally I'm a total hoarder so I should really start packing and make a more concerted effort to sort my things out.

I think now I'm on the home stretch, I'm less stressed out about the move and am focusing less on what I'm leaving behind.

Last weeked was hard, however. D came up to visit and we met up with some of my friends from Lancaster, Carlisle and Kendal. We went to Keswick on the Saturday and met up with my friend Jenny and her lovely dog which was amazing - snow on the hills and lots of fun exploring around the Bowderstone and tea at Temporary Measure - but I felt bad that I've found all these really incredible places around the county that I want to share with D  and, well, everyone in the world really and I might not get that chance. I know we'll be back, but coming up to visit for a few days at a time means that the little places might lose out to big day trips.

But that's fine. Because travel is fun, especially jaunts up and down the country to visit friends. And I'm starting to get really excited about the new job and the move. As work Oop North is quietening down it's giving more time to think about possible shenanigans with the new job. I don't think I'll really appreciate exactly what the new job entails until I've gotten started but from what I know of it so far, it's just really exciting. And as much as I hate leaving places that I love, I really love moving to new places and all the possibilities that come with it.

Guy Fawkes Night was excellent. This is the view of the castle fireworks from my roof. Lovely stuff.

"Beware of Doors.”

When I first moved to Kendal, about a year ago, I fell well and truly in love with the architecture. The town is very higgledly piggledy with lots of windy streets and “yards” – passages that look like they don’t lead anywhere until you head down them and find amazing shops and an unexpected pub and things. It looks quite chaotic and unplanned but a lot of the street layout has been the same since the town was established so there’s a real sense of continuity.

One of the things I like the most about the town’s architecture is the number of interesting doors. I was really stuck by this when I first moved here. I’d read Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere a few months earlier and was paying close attention to any interesting doors I came across in case they led to  a secret underground world. Kendal has tonnes of lovely but anassuming buildings with doors that look like they lead somewhere. When I moved here I decided it’d be fun to get photos of as many as I could. Almost one year later, I’ve made a start. It’s surprisingly awkward going up to a building and and taking a photo of someone’s door. There’s the worry that people will think you’re sizing it up for an elaborate burglary and such like but at the moment Kendal’s full of crazy tourists so it kind of feels ok at the moment.

I thought I'd start with some doors I walk past on my way to and from work.

This is the door to Dower House Antiques. Very nice and Georgian. It feels a bit like something from a period drama.

The shop front still has original (I assume) window frames and they are lovely. As are the fluted pillars and the duck egg blue paint. I've not actually been in there to have a mooch around yet as it's slightly too far to go on my work breaks.

I'm assuming the Dower reference might imply the building's origianal use as a home for a widow or dowager somehow linked to one of the large Kendal families (as in the Castle Dairy's heritage)

Next up we have the delights of Kendal Parish Church. Which is apparently only slightly less wide than York Minster. Which is why I did a rubbish job of fitting the whole thing into the picture.

(Just as an aside. This is the writing on the very ornately carved cross in front of the church.)



Oh no, Instagram!



More Instagrammyness but this door is just wonderful. Its just to the right of the big main door (above) and looks like it probably leads to spiral stairs or a tiny medieval broom cupboard.

  

Once you see one interesting door, you start seeing them everywhere. This could become quite a fun obsession.