Settling into Nab Cottage

Yesterday I wandered around Keswick for a few hours before I got the bus down to my home base for the next 4 weeks,Nab Cottage, in Rydal. I wasn’t sure which bus stop to get off , so I used my Google maps to keep an eye out for the stop closest to Nab Cottage. I got off and walked a mile dragging my wheeled suitcase behind me, not very grumbly since the view walking beside Rydal Lake is amazing.

The “cottage” is home to an English language school in the summer, run by Tim and Liz, with an amazing young Polish guy who turns out meals (mostly vegetarian) that would rival any restaurant I can think of. This week there are 3 Workaway helpers, and 1 Workaway teacher; there are two student groups here currently: English teachers coming for teacher training, and students from many different countries who’ve come to learn English. Everyone who comes to learn commits to speaking only English while here. I felt welcomed from the moment I arrived and can feel already what a special place this is. And there is a wonderful resident dog, Sahara, who is happy to sit with anyone who wants a canine companion.

My first full day here today was pretty remarkable. I had a leisurely breakfast , then walked the trails across the road up to see the caves on the side of the fell. The weather was so weird, very English- warm, misty, then sunny, then grey. The cave was easy to walk into and not at all scary as I thought it might be.

I followed the public footpath for another 3 miles to the village of Ambleside to poke around and get a couple things. Very sweet place and an easy ride back on the bus in time for lunch- a gorgeous homemade walnut crust tart with roasted veggies. I ate outside with a few of the teachers. My task for the afternoon was to pick fruit from plentiful fruit bushes. Again the sun went in and out, so I never got too hot, and had the beautiful view across the road to see when I straightened up. The gooseberry bushes were loaded, so they were the first to fill a large bowl- I think they look a little like grapes with thorns on their branches. In all, I picked 6+ kilo of fruit- green and red gooseberries, and raspberries. The skies cleared for the late afternoon, so I sat in the sun and cleaned all the fruit of the stems so they could be frozen for later use in a crumble or other dessert.

After dinner outside, I joined a group of women going into Grasmere to help at a church who were making rushes for the annual Rush Bearing Parade on Saturday. Tim and Liz’s daughters had all been part of the parade when they were younger, and they have offered for their students to go to help prepare the rushes and learn a bit about the tradition. I won’t try to explain too much since you can learn from the link above, but it goes back to the days when churches had earth floors and covered their floors with rushes. It was really fun to sit with a group of women, 2 from Germany, 2 from Spain, one from Japan, one from the US, as we learned from an English woman how to wrap/bind crosses or other things that will be carried in the parade on Saturday. It was also really challenging, and we laughed a lot as we talked about what other things we have made in our lives. None of us had ever done anything with rushes before.

A drink in the pub after, and we were all ready to head to bed. What a varied and amazing day.