McGahee

Recent years have seen a tremendous rise in the number of self catering properties to choose from.  No longer is a self catering holiday spent within a dingy flat. Lake District self catering cottages can be found for 2 persons right up to 16 and from the basic small house to luxury cottages complete with flat screen TV’s, wood burners and luxury interiors with all the modern conveniences of TV’s, DVD players, washing machines, dryers and dish washers.

Self catering holidays benefit the environment too. The carbon footprint of a self catering holiday is significantly less than a hotel based holiday. Many factors contribute to this, the amount of lights, sheets and towels washed and spa and swimming pool facilities. Some self catering property owners and developers are creating a more eco friendly property, for example, installing solar panels, wind turbines and worming and composting facilities.

In areas such as Grasmere and Ambleside there some idyllic self catering properties such as traditional Lakeland houses dating back years. Staying in Grasmere cottages or Ambleside cottages means there are views in every direction.  Located at the heart of The Lake District National, some properties have views of Helvellyn also Silver How, Steel Fell and Helm Crag. Grasmere is an idea base for walking with the foot of Helvellyn just minutes away and located on main A591 road which leads right up to Keswick for the highest concentration of fells in the Lake District.

Hedgerows date back thousands of years. There is evidence that Romans planted thorn hedges to provide boundaries to estates. Hedges were first introduced for privacy and security and they are still two of the biggest reasons for garden hedges today. Britain is a nation of gardeners. Britain has been passionate for gardening and tending to pieces of privately owned land.

The last few decades have seen the demise of many thousands of miles of established hedgerows and their associated wildlife. To help redress this balance we are offering four carefully selected mixtures of native species, these will grow together to form a dense rustic hedge that will be stock proof and encourage a wide variety of wildlife. Trim at any time from August onwards, ideally in winter. These well balanced mixes are a more economical and convenient way of planting native species. Privet is the most common hedging plant found in suburban areas. It is dark green so provides a good strong border and is easy to cultivate. Leylandii is another very popular hedging plant but one that grows at an extremely high rate causing many a neighbourhood dispute.

Evergreen mix native hedging would be the preferred choice of many homeowners and gardeners. Unfortunately there are very few suitable native or indigenous plants that are true evergreens so garden nurseries have had to adapt and use. For example, leaf retaining Beech and Hornbeam for more variety. This mixture provides as good a degree of year round privacy as is possible without using more ‘suburban’ evergreen plants.

The native Green Beech is a particularly versatile hedging plant, suitable for both formal garden hedges and more extensive stockproof country hedgerows. When trimmed as a hedge Green Beech can easily be maintained at any height from 2ft upwards. (The world’s tallest Beech Hedge at Meikleour in Scotland stands at 100ft.)! The delicate wavy edged new foliage emerges light green in late spring and darkens to a rich bright green during the summer months. As autumn progresses these leaves often change to a buttery golden yellow before turning to a familiar rich copper in winter.

In general, the interior design of the home is being taken more seriously and is being enjoyed even by the average home owners. We are starting to see famous and notable designers creating ranges for leading brands which is enabling the homeowner to achieve an individual or more sophisticated look.

To complement the interest people have in cooking and dinner parties the items on a dining table and the settings should be strongly considered. How the food looks on a plate is extremely important as well as how the plate looks within the table setting. The look of the food is the first impression and as is regularly said, you eat with your eyes. The food itself needs to look appealing but what it is presented on can also greatly affect the way the dish looks. Top chefs know the importance of this and they will be the ones that choose the dinnerware range for the restaurant. Only a few years ago, a standard plate would be used to serve all the dishes. Now there are curved, square, rectangle, oval and shallow bowls.

You cutlery then needs to match the dinnerware. A traditional set of cutlery would look out of place next to a modern square plate for example. Likewise, a modern set of cutlery would not feel right with a traditional set of china plates. Leading cutlery brands such as Arthur Price cutlery have been manufacturing high grade cutlery for over 100 years. Their traditional ranges remain popular but they have introduced contemporary ranges in keeping with the modern look that many home owners are requesting.

One of the leading modern cutlery brands at the moment and one which is synonymous with innovative design is Villeroy and Boch. Villeroy and Boch cutlery as with other brands of such stature retain a timeless design but firmly keeping with a contemporary look. Due to the nature of stainless steel, cutlery can be a real statement on a dining table. For a customer wanting to achieve a very contemporary look, modern cutlery perfect finishing touch.

The Eden Valley is a beautiful, yet little known area in Cumbria, which lies between the Lake District National Park and the North Pennines - an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. To the North of the Eden Valley lies Carlisle and Hadrian’s Wall, whilst to the South you will find the fabulous Yorkshire Dales.

There is an excellent choice of accommodation available within Eden including hotels, guest houses, Cumbrian cottages and caravan parks. Away from the main holiday season many of the Lake District holiday cottages offer the flexibility of short breaks rather than just whole weeks, so visitors can enjoy a long weekend in the area and perhaps buy some fresh local produce to cook yourself at the property. However your eating requirements are catered for by the many excellent restaurants and traditional pubs that reflect the local flavour.

Historic Penrith, often referred to as the “Gateway to the Northern Lakes”, is the major town in the Eden Valley, with a good mix of traditional shops selling locally made products and crafts, including famed Cumberland Sausage and Penrith Toffee.

When it comes to places to visit during your stay the Eden Valley offers a wide range of historic houses, castles, gardens, craft workshops, galleries and museums. In fact there are over seventy visitor attractions in Eden. For the more active there are many sporting facilities including sailing, windsurfing, horse riding, golf, squash, tennis and fishing.

One of the area’s key activities is Appleby Horse Fair, which takes place every June. The Horse Fair gathers together travelling folk from all over the country, buying and selling horses, keeping alive a 300 year old tradition. This is Britain’s largest gypsy gathering, with hundreds of tradition horse-drawn caravans converge on nearby Gallows Hill.

Walkers will find Eden is wonderful walking country, either a leisurely walk along river banks and lake shore or you can take to the higher paths over the Pennines and Lake District fells. In fact, the Pennine Way National Trail reaches into the Eden Valley at Appleby-in-Westmorland as it winds its way towards Scotland. Cyclists can follow the coast to coast (C2C) and Cumbria Cycle Way, both routes are clearly marked along the way.

The River Eden provides challenging fishing, and has in place a “Go Wild” scheme to enable visitors to try wild fishing on the river.

Portable Building Sales recently won a contract to supply two modular buildings to the Coventry Primary Care Trust.

The first modular building we installed as a temporary walk in centre, was a used 6 bay modular building.

Prior to arrival on site, jackpad foundations were used to erect the building instead of traditional concrete foundations.

Portable Building Sales have agreed to purchase the building back after the Primary Care Trust no longer have a use for the building and in addition will also purchase the jackpad foundations leaving a clear and clean car park area once again.

The Portable Building Sales “buy back” scheme ensures that the building is removed safely, professionally and to the current Health & Safety and CDM regulations. They ensure that the Primary Care Trust has no disposal problems and receives payment for the building before it is removed.

Portable Building Sales Ltd is one of the few companies in the UK to provide this type of service.

The used steel framed modular building that was supplied consists of six plastic coated steel modules which have white Upvc double glazed windows. The building also has a plasterboard lined ceiling and walls and a double thickness plywood floor.

This used modular building was decorated internally, cleaned externally and reinstated electrically to the latest regulations.

This temporary modular walk in centre building complies with the current Part L2A 2006 building regulations and is extremely environmentally friendly as it only uses 3% of the energy required to manufacture an equivalent new modular building. This is because the embodied energy is transportable and therefore can be relocated to a new site.

Also there are significant cost savings to the client and in this instance the tax payer as well, as this building was approximately a third of the cost of an equivalent new manufactured modular building.

Portable Buildings completed the installation of this building within four weeks from the date of order and to the client’s complete satisfaction.

Even though this modular building is pre-owned, Portable Building Sales still provide a 12 months guarantee with the building.

Portable Building Sales provided the Coventry Primary Care Trust with complete peace of mind throughout the process of attending meetings, submission of our Health & Safety plans, supply and installation of the used modular building, arrangement of the crane, to even organising the transportation and temporary traffic management to enable the building to be off loaded from a road adjacent to the site.

For more information please visit http://www.portablebuildingsales.co.uk or telephone 01482 656590

There are a variety of reasons why the Lake District is a great place to visit in the autumn and winter months. Starting with autumn and the colours in the landscape are simply beautiful. Browns, reds, oranges and yellows shower the roads, fields and fells. An excellent time for artists and photographers to visit the Lake District.

Moving to November and December and the Lake District is lucky to have a good share of those spectacular bright sunny winter days when the air is at its crispest. On days like these, you can see for miles and they are excellent times to go walking or to visit the area for a short break. In November especially, there are some great offers available in Lake District hotels. For those wanting a real escape and complete tranquillity, November is ideal.

January celebrates the New Year, recharges the batteries after a hectic, over indulgent Christmas and can be one of the best value short breaks you have. The Lake District is becoming a popular choice in January. There are many activities to do in the Lake District along with the possibility of snow still being on the fells. As with hotels and leisure accommodation throughout the country, Cumbria hotels and Lake District hotels have excellent rates for January as it is traditionally thought to be the quietest month of the year. This enables the consumer to enjoy short breaks in the Lake District at fabulous prices, much needed after Christmas but especially when everyone is being hit by the economic crisis.

Savvy travellers are noticing the great value deals to be had in the winter months. Holidays are quite often being thought about and planned for spring and summer but waiting until then without a break is too long. A short break in the Lake District can combine a much needed break with the chance to go canoeing, sailing, walking, mountaineering, fell running, cycling, the list goes on. The most popular, cheapest and most accessible is walking on the hundreds of fells in the Lake District. Wainwright alone walked and wrote about 214 of them but there are many further smaller fells allowing walkers of any age or ability to sample what the English Lake District is famous for.