Beautiful Grasmere

Thursday was an exciting day, as I got my Christmas present from Matt.  A magical mystery tour overnight.  Tom got picked up by his grandparents at 10 and then we packed the car and headed off.  We headed West along the A65, so it was the Lakes, we headed through Windermere, then through Ambleside and then to Grasmere where we headed into the village.

Beautiful evening in Grasmere

Matt had booked us a night at the Wordsworth Hotel and Spa with dinner and a spa treatment included. He wanted to help me out with my neck and shoulders as they have been stiff for over a year now.  Problem was, I had woken up with a horrible back, not sure what I did but my back was very painful. To sit was painful, to stand was painful and to walk was painful.  I couldn't bend down, I couldn't put my socks / shoes on, I was in a bit of a state, all from having a nice deep sleep!  Some might say it was the perfect day to have a bad back, but I wanted to enjoy my day, not be in pain.

Oh hum, we arrived just in time for lunch and found ourselves a good little tea room, The Old Bakery, where we had baked beans on toast and a sausage sandwich - both very very good quality and unusually for Grasmere - reasonably priced.

Des Res

I then went for my spa treatment which was a 40 minute hot stone treatment.  She majored in on my neck and shoulders but also did some on my back to see if she could relieve my pain.  It was gorgeous: a mixture of aromatherapy (oils etc), massage and hot stones, it felt lovely and I didn't want it to end, unfortunately it did.  The therapist suggested a go in the sauna immediately afterwards, so I nipped across and found Matt in it, we stayed in for another 30 mins or so and then went to check in, in time to go for a short walk to enjoy the ebbing light.

The hills around Grasmere were burning bright orange in the sunshine, the lake was flat and the mountain tops were dusted with snow.  It was gorgeous, under a clear bright blue sky.  We walked a quarter round the lake, taking in all the huge houses and fantasising about which ones we would like and who would have which room etc - Matt always wants his office at the top of a turret.

After the snow

We walked back and then decided to try out the local pubs.  We started at the hotel and had a very pleasant mulled wine each, then to a pub in the square for another mulled wine (Matt was on beer).  We then discovered that there was a craft beer pub around the corner (Tweedies), so we had to check that one out as well.  It was very busy but we got ourselves a drink (mulled cider here for me and weapons grade beer for Matt) and then charmed our way on to a table.  We were chatting away when suddenly I saw a glimpse of someone I thought looked familiar.  I looked again, yep, it was one of the Mums from Ingleton, Clarrie.  We shouted to her, and before we knew it were on her table having a chinwag.  Her first comment "it's a good job my husband knows I'm here isn't it?".  Yep Ingleton village has eyes everywhere, you have to go a long way away if you want to have an affair!  She was there with an old (male) friend from university who was visiting from the US where he now lives.  I've never really spoken to her much, but it was easy conversation and her mate, Dom was also easy to talk to.  We ended up having another round of drinks before heading off as we had a dinner date.

We dressed up for dinner and headed into the restaurant for our 4 course dinner.  It was all very lovely.  It was actually about 6 courses, as there were extra little nibbles including a butternut squash espresso which was amazing!  We both ended up going for the same things: Blue Cheese Mousse, Poussin and Cheese and Biscuits.  All very lovely with a smooth bottle of red wine.

We didn't have the best night's sleep at the hotel - something to do with too much alcohol in our systems (and my bad back making it impossible to get comfortable) - we blame Clarrie!  However, we woke up to a Winter Wonderland, it had been snowing all morning and the place was looking idyllic.  We went down for breakfast: a cheeky eggs Benedict for me and smoked salmon and scrambled eggs for Matt and then went to walk around the whole lake.  It was glorious, and a great cure for a (slight) hangover.  The landscape had completely changed overnight, lots of people were out enjoying it.

Once we got back to Grasmere, we found ourselves back at the same bakery for lunch - a Bath Bun each for us this time.  We then headed back home, it began to rain on us and the landscape turned grey and wet.  We had had the best of it in the morning.  We stopped off quickly at Hayes and Lakeland and then headed home to our nice warm house.  Thanks Matt - it was a wonderful break - just a shame my back caused us trouble!

Saturday was a miserable, grey day.  Matt headed to Settle to pick up Tom whilst I started a cook-a-thon!  First of all was beef stew with the remaining Christmas beef, then a large lasagna and then a chicken curry ready for New Year's clamping tomorrow.

The afternoon was spent snuggling up on the sofa watching the telly with Matt and Tom.