It’s hard to believe we are half way through 2019, yet we still have all the summer ahead of us.
The school holidays are on the horizon, yet many young people are having to stay indoors and revise for those summer exams. However, if you are lucky enough to have put all those stresses behind you, there are plenty of things to do in Cumbria as well as walk the fells, sail the lakes and shop for outdoor clothing! Here are our top 5 things we are planning to do this month in Cumbria.
1. Take afternoon tea with a vegan, vegetarian, gluten or dairy-free friend
Take your vegan, vegetarian, gluten or dairy-free friend for afternoon tea overlooking the spectacular Lake Windermere.
We are so excited to be going for afternoon tea this month to the four-star luxury boutique hotel, Laura Ashley Hotel The Belsfield.
With the popularity of meat-free dining and rise in the number of people with food allergies and intolerances, we just think the launch of these four new afternoon tea menus to appeal to a wide range of diets is a brilliant idea.
As well as a traditional afternoon tea menu, The Belsfield’s 2AA Rosette chefs have created vegetarian, vegan, dairy-free and gluten-free afternoon tea menus, which means everyone can enjoy a traditional, English treat whatever their dietary needs.
Priced from £22.95 per person, afternoon tea is served with buttermilk plain, fruit, vegan or gluten-free scones with a choice of strawberry jam, clotted cream, and tofu or dairy-free spread. We will be spoilt for choice with their new afternoon tea sweet treats such as mini carrot muffin, rocky road, Roly’s vegan fudge, raspberry Eton mess and gluten-free brownies and gluten-free Victoria sponge.
And among my person favourites, the savoury options; vegan sausage roll, smoked salmon and cream cheese, and soy tofu stick as well as a selection sandwiches including hummus and red pepper, and avocado, gem and cucumber, available on gluten-free bread.
We will be sharing our visit, live across our social media from Monday, 3 June and our reviews will be live on cumbria24 and ktmy.co.uk
2. See the new exhibition at UpFront Gallery – ‘In Ore’
Visit our BBC 1’s Where the art is finalist, and cumbria24 writer Celia Barbush’s exhibition ‘In Ore’ opens 4 June and runs until 22 July 2019 at the UpFront Gallery, Hutton-in-the-Forest near Penrith.
This is Celia’s first major solo show since her television appearance.
Celia is travelling into the Cumbrian landscape most days, usually 1000ft above sea level, canvas on her back, recording traces of old mines in remote parts of the fells.
This project was initially prompted by studying Turner’s lifetime’s inventory of 19000 sketches of the landscape, covering mountainous areas such as Scotland, The Lake District and the Alps. He spent many months, enduring adverse weather conditions and exposure. Or maybe ‘enjoying’, rather than ‘enduring’.
His subject matter was ‘Romantic’, capturing the ‘sublime’ in the landscape – ideas of terror, magnificence, beauty, and awe. The paintings would include churches and other buildings that might be popular with his patrons.
In the footsteps of Turner, Celia is re-visiting this type of landscape, but searching out a different trace of man. Those to be found in mining remains. She is exploring the importance of this industrial past to Cumbrian, British, and European identity.
Celia says: “The weather conditions (generally cold, windy and drizzly) encourage a certain speed of execution. I get into ‘the zone’, similar to carrying out a portrait. I have this conversation in my head with what I’m looking at. In the presence of the silent mountains and traces of ghosts, I get a feeling of awe…for the monumental forces that shaped the rock millions of years ago and the hours of endurance to carve/blast into it, and the laborious preparations associated with this.”
We will be micro-blogging from the Private View for Celia’s exhibition at UpFront Gallery on Tuesday night, 4 June, so follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
3. Catch a live West End show
Catch the West End’s top musical Everyone’s Talking About Jamie at Zeffirelli’s cinema in Ambleside – 13 June 2019
Winner of 3 WhatsOnStage Awards including Best New Musical and nominated for 5 Olivier Awards, Everybody’s Talking About Jamie will be broadcast live from the Apollo Theatre in London’s Shaftesbury Avenue .
The live and encore streaming of theatre from across the world has been a revolution for people who love the arts and live in rural locations like Cumbria.
Our independent cinemas are at the forefront of bringing the very best of what’s on stage – drama, dance, musicals – and also gallery shows to people hundreds and thousands of miles away from London and New York.
We did make the trip to London to see the award-winning musical based on a true story about a schoolboy from Sheffield who dreams of being a drag artist. However, to see it again with the new cast in a lovely, independent theatre like Zeffirelli’s will be a real treat – and a lot cheaper than the £150-plus train fare, hotel accommodation and tickets to a West End show!
4. Have a day out at Woolfest2019
Woolfest is the original British Festival of Wool takes place over two days this month – 28 and 29 June at Cockermouth’s Auction Mart
We will be micro-blogging from the festival on Friday, so keep an eye out on our social media that day.
To countdown to Woolfest, we are sharing our experiences from past years to give you a flavour of this great annual event:
Countdown to Woolfest 2019
5. Visit Brockhole and discover what’s new at the Lake’s most popular visitor centre
Visit Brockhole and discover how a family holiday home became one of Cumbria’s most popular visitor attractions- and celebrate the Gaddums Restaurant’s first anniversary.
Mancunian silk merchants, the Gaddums built their holiday home between1896-1899s near Windermere. Brockhole House became a family home in 1899 when William and his wife Edith moved in with their two children and it remained so until 1945 with the death of William Gaddum.
Brockhole was sold to the Merseyside Hospital Board in 1946 and used as a woman’s convalescent home until the 1960s.
The Lake District National Park Authority purchased the Gaddums estate in 1969, opening Brockhole as the first National Park Visitor Centre – welcoming over 40,000 visitors in its first month.
The Gaddum Restaurant is part of the ongoing development of the Brockhole estate as a visitor destination that encourages visitors and local people to explore and celebrate the Lake District.
We will be doing just that when we visit Brockhole this month and try the new lunch menu at Gaddums. Check out our reviews and blog on our day out at Brockhole later this month.
Check out our post on the Treetop Trek at Brockhole
If you have some interesting events coming up in June we’d love to share them with our followers. Tell us more about your events and activities in the comment box below or share them on our social media platforms. It’s good to share.
