Autumn Mist Grasmere

"Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness" John Keats wrote his poem "To Autumn" on 19 September 1819.

Today's weather in Grasmere certainly has the Autumn mist in evidence. This morning's walk from White Moss was my favourite one hour walk, round by Grasmere shore, Deer Bolt Woods, and back via Loughrigg Terrace. You can find a description of my walks from White Moss here- click on White Moss Walks.

The walk takes you to the shore of Grasmere , approached by a bridge across the River Rothay.

Autumn morning Grasmere Weir.

From the shore of Grasmere at 11am this morning, National Trust Allan Bank could be seen through the mist.

Allan Bank glimpsed through the mist over Grasmere

Twenty minutes later, this was the view from Loughrigg Terrace, a few metres above the shore of Grasmere .

Grasmere from Loughrigg Terrace- Allan Bank no longer visible.

The mist had come down and it had started to drizzle. This had not put off the walkers, who were out in strength on this mild, misty, moisty Monday morning. ( how's that for alliteration?)

If you want to visit this beautiful area, our cottage, Brockstone Grasmere Cottage could be just the place for you. We still have the week from 28 October available at a special rate, and we have short breaks and excellent value weeks available in November, December and January. You can read more about our Grasmere Cottage winter breaks here. 

Here's a photo showing the exact same viewof Grasmere as in the photo above, taken on a clear autumn day.

Same view, different day!

And here's one taken in winter, with a hint of snow on the fells. This photo is of Rydal Water. You can see Rydal Water from the terrace of Brockstone Grasmere Cottage.

Rydal Water on a winter's day.

As I headed up through Deer Bolt Woods, three sheep came charging at me. There are never usually any sheep in Deer Bolts, so I wasn't surprised when the farmer and his sheep dog rushed by me , the farmer bellowing at his dogs and the sheep in an attempt to get them back.

A group of visitors were entranced. They had obviously watched Countryfile on the BBC last night, which featured the One Man and His Dog competition. Here was One (very angry) man and his dog in real life! "Oh, it's just like on TV" they said. I don't actually remember the farmers on Countryfile sounding quite so cross!

Daffodils at Brockstone Cottage Grasmere

The daffodils at Brockstone Cottage have been beautiful this year. Grasmere is famous for daffodils, thanks to William Wordsworth who often walked past our cottage back in the days when it was two cottages owned by the Le Fleming family of Rydal Hall, who used the cottages for their estate workers.

Bench in Brockstone Garden

 Here is a pretty bench set in the corner of Brockstone garden. From the bench you can look down on the footpath below. You can see the gate on the "coffin route" through which many people walk every day on their hike between Grasmere and Rydal. The view from the bench is in the picture below.

Looking down from Brockstone garden to the path below, with views over Rydal Water

Turn the other way, and look up the hill. More daffodils. Brockstone garden extends as far as the fence you can see, and beyond that there is fellside, leading on to the side of Nab Scar fell.

Brockstone garden looking uphill from the bench- full of daffodils

 Brockstone Grasmere Cottage has a wild woodland garden. In March , this is absolutely full of daffodils. Guests are very welcome to pick them and take a big bunch home at the end of their week in the cottage.

Brockstone garden from the side window in the four poster master bedroom

The picture above is taken through the side window of the master bedroon at Brockstone Cottage. The bedroom has a fourposter bed.From the front window of both bedrooms you see Rydal Water and the hills over towards Grasmere. On a clear day you can see the Coniston Fells.

View from Brockstone bedroom of Rydal Water

If you want to see daffodils at Brockstone Grasmere cottage you'll have to wait until 2018. However, we can offer you bluebells . The week of 22-29 April is still available, and in past years this week has been a great week for bluebells. The woods around Brockstone of full of these beautiful flowers. You can see pictures if you scroll back through this blog. 

Even better news is that we've reduced that week from £790 to £650 for last minute bookings. Can you come? Can you take advantage of this special offer?  Do you know someone who might like a week in this lovely spot? We'd love to hear from you.

Brockstone Grasmere Holiday Cottage getting booked up for 2017

Hello and Happy New Year.

It's been a while since I posted here. I'm just leaving a quick link to our blog on our Brockstone Cottage website. Click here to read my latest post there

I've just in the last two days filled 6 weeks at our Grasmere cottage. Those of you thinking about staying at our Grasmere cottage in 2017 need to book asap! If you want to read reviews you can find them here.

We have the last week in April and the first in May still available, so here are some May photos from around Brockstone Grasmere Holiday cottage to tempt you.

Brockstone Cottage - a new look for our Lakes cottage with amazing views

The lounge, kitchen and dining area of Brockstone Cottage have been refurbished. Here are a couple of photos of the new look lounge.

We've removed the existing fireplace, taken out lots of bricks that had been inserted over the years, and gone back to the original fireplace. There's a huge slate lintel, which has a couple of holes drilled in it. We're not sure exactly how these were used in the past, but lots of old  Lakeland fireplaces have them.

We now have a beautiful log burning stove. Cosy. You can see the new curtains, carpet and furniture too.

The back of the lounge has been opened up to reveal a couple of windows onto the banking. These were previously hidden by a stud partition. We love these windows. We're also very happy with our new sofas.

The original  window seat is still a lovely feature, and the seating arrangement now makes the most of the beautiful views.

We'll be writing more and showing more pics in the next few days. We still have 1 week available in the school holidays from 27 August . After that, our next available dates are from mid October.

It's a Bank Holiday and it's not raining in the Lakes.

So far this Bank Holiday Weekend we've had NO RAIN in the Lakes, at least not during the day. It may have rained at night, but that doesn't spoil anyone's enjoyment. Saturday was gloriously sunny, yesterday we had some sun, and although today is a bit dull it's not putting of the hikers. In fact, it's ideal hiking weather.

We've just updated our Brockstone Grasmere Cottage website, and there is a fabulous picture on there of a buzzard , taken by one of our guests. She gave us permission to use it on the website, but not on our blog here, so you'll have to click through to see it.

Here are some photos taken last year of the bluebells- they are looking wonderful right now, so get out and about in the Lakes with your camera and see what you can find.

This fabulous view could be yours next week!

Thanks to a recent guest, we can show you a sunset taken from the terrace of Brockstone Cottage, looking at Loughrigg and Silver How , Grasmere, with the Coniston Fells in the background.

Winter sunset at Brockstone Cottage thanks to Deborah Newman

Our cottage is available for a week or a short break from now until 20 March. Please contact us for our best rates.

More photos and lots of information can be found on our website here.

We are also able to offer the first week of the Easter Holidays for just £690- it's a bargain!

Now taking cottage bookings for 2015

Our Christmas guests enjoyed their stay at Brockstone Cottage, though the weather was very variable to put it mildly.

On Monday 22 December we awoke to floods. I had to drive to Ambleside at 9 am, and was shocked to find that the water came well over the car wheels as I drove past Nab Cottage. It was a struggle to get through.

Later in the week we got beautiful crisp dry sunny weather, and this was the view from Brockstone on the Saturday when the guests left.

View from Brockstone  cottage 27 December 2014

In the foreground is the ridge between Loughrigg and Silver How, and in the background covered on snow is Wetherlam and the Coniston Fells.

We're now taking bookings for 2015. You can check rates and availability and read reviews on the Holiday Lettings website or the HomeAway website.

Hallowe'en Pumpkins at Brockstone Grasmere Holiday Cottage

 When our guests checked out after their week at our cottage, they left these on the table  to greet us.

That's Rydal Water in the background by the way- lovely view for pumpkins.

Our Grasmere Cottage is now fully booked until 13 September.

We've found the perfect match for the two weeks we still had available in July. A family of 3 who wanted to book at the last minute for those exact weeks have snapped up our Lakes holiday cottage at a great rate. Smiles all round.

The next week which we have available now is from Saturday 13 September, which will be £750 for the week. We then have the week from 18 October, also £750.

These are the only two weeks we have available between now and November. If you would like a cosy cottage stay during the winter months, the rate is just £490 per week from November to March. (excludes Christmas and New Year)

Here's a snap I took in winter of the view from Brockstone Cottage terrace. If there is any sun going, you'll get it at our cottage overlooking Rydal Water. Here you can see Wetherlam and the Coniston Fells, lightly coated in snow.

Free nights in our Lakes Cottage?

Here's a great last minute offer.
Arrive Thursday 5 June, leave Saturday 14 June, and pay only £590!

We've already reduced the rate for a week's stay from Saturday 7 June to just £590. Now, if you can arrive on the Thursday you can have Thursday and Friday nights free of charge!

Bargain? I think so.

For more about our Grasmere Holiday Cottage look at our new website or go to Holiday Lettings to see more and read our 5 Star reviews on Trip Advisor.

Leaving you with a view of the terrace at Brockstone. There's a barbecue in the outhouse if the weather is good. In fact the BBC forecast is for sun, some showers, and temps in the 20s. Perfect.

Just 6 weeks still available in our Holiday cottage until November

Our Lakes Holiday Cottage, Brockstone is nearly fully booked from now until November.

Our Grasmere holiday cottage has amazing views, is perfectly located for walkers, and has all the facilities you need for a great Lakes holiday. It's not just me that says that ( I would, wouldn't I?). You can read our reviews on Trip Advisor Here . If you discount the odd nutty review ( you can't please everybody all of the time, obviously) you'll see that our holiday cottage is very popular. Could it be perfect for you?

We can offer the week commencing 31 May, and the week commencing 7 June, at the special reduced last minute rate of £590 per week. If you could stay for two weeks, we would offer a two week stay for only £1080. What a bargain!

The next weeks we have are the weeks commencing 19 July and 26 July. We have reduced these school holiday weeks from £870 to £750 per week. If you want to book the two weeks, we can offer that for £1,400. We think this is a great rate for high season.

After that we have the week commencing 13 September for £750, and the week commencing 18 October for £750.

That's all we have until November. If you would like to take advantage of any of these offers, we'd love to hear from you.

Here's a photo I took on Saturday, looking out of the twin bedroom window at Brockstone. You can see Wetherlam , Coniston on the horizon to the left, and Sergeant Man, Grasmere on the right. The wire you can see again the background of the fields full of May blossom is bringing your free unlimited broadband to you at Brockstone cottage.

We now have unlimited broadband for our guests at Brockstone Cottage

At last! We finally have access to the internet from our Grasmere holiday cottage, Brockstone. I won’t bore you with the whole story as to why it took so long. Suffice to say that it has been a struggle. BT seem to have a whole new dictionary to explain their actions. How a communications company can fail to communicate is very puzzling.

I've wasted hours hanging around waiting following messages in which they told me I MUST be on site between 1 and 6 pm only to be told (after I’d made several furious phone calls) that this could never had happened due to “an engineering plan needing approval”.

I love the conversation I had with my “Special personal BT manager”  yesterday who advised me that they were “fast tracking” my connection and that it would definitely be connected sometime before midnight, 24 April, not 30 April as feared, completely ignoring the fact that I had been promised it for 3 April. Oh well, the main thing is that it’s now working, the signal is good, and our guests are very happy.

Bluebells in Rydal Woods, a short walk from Brockstone Cottage

I like to add a picture to every blog post, but a photo of a router doesn’t really look that great, so instead I’m showing you a picture of bluebells in Rydal woods.
We have two weeks available in May, and we've reduced the rates. If you come early in May, the bluebells will be looking and smelling wonderful. Did you know that bluebells have a lovely scent? I fell calmer just thinking about them.  Away with all this BT anger- all is well…..

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Remember the weather in March last year?

I've just been looking through photos from last March. Here's one I took at Brockstone Cottage on 24 March 2013. Those of you familiar with the walk from Grasmere to Rydal will recognise the gate with the unusual fastening. It's just below our Lakes holiday cottage. One day I'm planning to write a blog post with photos about gates and their fastenings- there so many different types - I find it fascinating. Maybe I'm a bit of a sad case.

Rydal Water from our Lakes Holiday Cottage March 2013

Snow, grey skies, grey lake in March last year....quite a contrast to the one I took and posted on our blog yesterday.

If you are reading this post and have a moment to spare, please can you visit and give a LIKE to our Brockstone Cottage page on Facebook? Thank you. Please click here to get to our Facebook page.

A welcome cup of tea overlooking Rydal Water on our Lakes cottage terrace

Our Lakes Holiday Cottage, Brockstone, doesn't have any guests staying this week, so we've taken the chance to do some gardening there- mostly pruning and cutting back. Everything seems to be growing there right now, (including the snowdrops which are lovely, and the daffodils that are just coming out.)

We took a very well earned cup of tea on the terrace. You can see Rydal Water down below in the background. You could have this view next week! The cottage is available at just £290 for a 4 night midweek stay, or £290 for a 3 night weekend stay. If you can stay a week, it's £450.

Not great photos technically, but you get the picture!

Can you spot our Lakes Holiday Cottage in this picture?

I set off from White Moss in the sunshine this morning. From Loughrigg Terrace you can look back to White Moss, and if you lift your eyes and look, you can see our Lake District Holiday Cottage, Brockstone. Can you see it in this photo? It's right in the middle, on the side of Nab Scar, in a clearing between two sets of trees.

If I swing the camera down a little you would see Grasmere Lake to the left and the River Rothay running by.
Here's another view .

And here is more of a close up view. All these are taken on a great little walk, which you can do from the door of our Lakes Holiday Cottage.

You can stay here in March for just £290 for a four night midweek break, - one of our last minute offers. You can read more about walks from White Moss and Brockstone Cottage here.

A walk to Alcock Tarn from White Moss - glorious views and a wonderful sunset.

Yesterday the weather was gorgeous, and we headed off at about 2.15 from White Moss House, on one our wonderful White Moss Walks. We went up to our holiday rental cottage, Brockstone, then headed up the steep path by the side of Dunnabeck, heading past the lovely old sheep fold and on up to Alcock tarn.

Alcock Tarn

Setting off back down via the main Grasmere path, the snowy Langdale Ridge forms the horizon.

Heading back - Langdales in the background

On the way down the main path you have brilliant views over Grasmere Village .

Grasmere Village from a point just below the flag post at the top of the Grasmere Guides Fell Race route.

The day ended with a beautiful sunset - here the sky is looking amazing over Grasmere Lake

Sunset over Grasmere with the Coniston Fells in the background.

Just a reminder- you could have this walk right on your doorstep if you book our Lakes Holiday Cottage. Special rates for March if you book right now.

Reasons to be cheerful, even though it's January.

Walking round Rydal Water today I met a man who said "aren't we lucky- it's dry and there's a hint of sun". After so much bad weather, that was indeed a reason to be cheerful. Having such great walks on the doorstep is another, though as this man was from Buckinghamshire he wasn't a lucky local like me.

Here's a photo from the path just by Rydal Caves, taken this afternoon.

Rydal Water looking over to White Moss House and Brockstone, our Lake District Holiday cottage

Here's a description of the walk round Rydal Water if you would like to get more idea of the wonderful walks from White Moss and from our holiday cottage .We have guests there who have booked to rent the cottage for the whole of January. We were concerned that the wet weather might be daunting, but as they are from Chicago where it's been -20 C, they are very happy with the mild weather we're getting here.

The cottage is booked until 27 February, but if you want to book if for a week between then and the end of March, and can pay in full before the end of January, the rate will be only £490 per week ( usually £550). This includes all laundry, heating etc.

One more reason to bee cheerful- a lovely little red squirrel keeps popping up in our garden. I thought they would be hibernating at this time of year, but this one is bright and breezy. I never have the camera to to hand at the right time, but I WILL get a photo soon.

BTW, if you're in Grasmere tomorrow, Thursday 9 January, why not come to the Grasmere WI Open meeting at 2.30 pm in the Tithe Barn. Only £3 for a fascinating talk, tea, cakes and raffle. More details about Grasmere W I here.

Happy New Year- we're looking forward to 2014.

2013 has been a great year for us personally- we became grandparents for the first time. Felix was born on 1st September, and he has just spent his first Christmas with us ( along with his mum and dad and all our family). White Moss House is just the best place to spend a family Christmas, whatever the weather.

Going forward into 2014, we have decided, after over 30 years of welcoming guests to White Moss House from all over the world,that we're going to take a break. We've been one of the top restaurants in the Good Food Guide for over 30 years, and in the last few years, although we haven't offered dinner every night, we've been a very highly rated Guest House. It's all been great fun.

Brockstone Cottage, our Grasmere holiday cottage,

Brockstone Cottage from White Moss viewpoint

is still going to be available for self catering . It's fully booked until March, but the weeks are filling up quickly for the rest of the year.


Here's a reminder of one of our favourtie recipes, the famous White Moss Sherry trifle. As usual, we made one for Boxing Day. It was delicious. Yesterday I found a tiny portion left in a small bowl in the fridge, and ate it for breakfast - as you do.

Today is another dull day, but it has stopped raining, so we're off for our last walk of the year. We'll be walking round Rydal Water with my brother, who is visiting for New Year.  We're looking forward to lots more walking in the year ahead.

Thank you to everyone who has supported us , and best wishes to you all for 2014!

Stay in our Lakes Holiday Cottage for Christmas or New Year at reduced rates.

We have late availablilty for our Lake District Cottage, Brockstone Grasmere Holiday Cottage. Perched on the hillside overlooking Rydal Water, this south facing cottage gets all the sun going in winter. When the sun dips behind the hill, Grasmere Village is plunged into the shade, but our cottage gets at least a precious extra hour of winter sun.

Our current guests leave on Sunday 15 Decemebr, and our next guests arrive on Thursday 2 January. We are offering 4 nights over Christmas from £520, and four nights over New Year from £580. This is for up to 4 guests. Dogs are welcome for a small extra charge.

We can be flexible about changeover days, and we may be able to offer extra days at special low rates.

Please email  esuedixon@gmail.com or ring 015394 35295 to check for rates, availabilty, or to ask any questions you might have.

Here's a picture taken at dusk in December the other year. This could be your view over Loughriggg to Wetherlam the the Coniston Fells.

December view from Brockstone Grasmere Holiday Cottage to Wetherlam.