Remote Cottage Life in the Lake District I Spring & Summer

At the end of Autumn in 2022, we moved to a remote cottage in the Lake District.

A 300-year-old building, stone walls, stone floors and a wood burner. 7 miles from the nearest town and right at the foothills of the Northern Fells in the Lake District National Park.

An experience that blows us away on a daily basis but has also been a challenge.

Oh, and we don’t drive. But we love to cycle!

This is how life has been through spring and summer.

If you’re interested to know any more, just drop a comment and say hello 🙂

Thanks for watching,
Josh & Sarah

✌📷🎥 @joshandsarahride

—

If you want to see how winter was in the cottage, this is the first video from when we moved in: https://youtu.be/A4PqvIJpvW4?si=ulokTAwO8xuZy2c-

—

FILMED ON
*Camera – Fuji xt-4 – https://amzn.to/3sczozq
*Lens 1 – Fuji 23mm – https://amzn.to/3Thdsz6
*Lens 2 – Fuji 70-300mm – https://amzn.to/3ZsLWBv
*DJI Mini 2 Drone – https://amzn.to/3SVHTLI
*GoPro Hero 9 – https://amzn.to/3mwHZxL
*Microphone – Rode Videomic Go ii – https://amzn.to/3TAB2GH

*These are affiliate links. Making a purchase with it won’t cost you any additional money. We may earn a small commission which helps us make more videos. Thanks for your support!

—

TIMESTAMPS

00:00 – Intro & cottage
02:31 – Waiting for spring to spring
03:59 – A time to grow
10:04 – The sunshine that never ended
12:19 – The sunshine ended
13:05 – The last chance summer bucket list

#lakedistrict #cottage #nature

We’ve always wondered what life would be like in these little quirky Cottages you’d see in the middle of nowhere we’d cycle past one and just think how incredible it’ be to live there but we’d eventually agree that in real reality we probably couldn’t make it work out somehow though that’s exactly where

We’ve Ended up a remote 300-year old building sitting in the foothills of the Sleepy Northern Fs in the Lake District National Park and we’re almost a year in hi hello we’ll give you a tour a bit later but it’s a proper little cuming Cottage stone walls Stone floors and a wood

Burner surrounded by sheep a lot of cows and rolling Landscapes home to many Resident mice two very new lodges and US hey I’m Josh and I’m Sarah and you’ll get to know us a little bit more through this video but I guess the key thing is

That we moved here after a big curve ball in our life plans yeah and we had never really Liv anywhere before in a remote location and the real big factor is that we don’t actually drive no so moving in was a really big gamble yeah

We’re 7 m from the nearest town or train station and a hilly 5m ride to the nearest post office or Pub the result is we spend a lot of time on our bikes which we actually really love we moved here in 2022 right at the end of Autumn and just as the last

Leaves were falling from the trees not sure what to expect really but pretty open to the adventure and up for a challenge you and over the last 12 months that is exactly what it’s been an adventure that genuinely takes our Breath Away on a daily basis but also a

Challenge so we’re going to look back at how it’s been through spring and summer in a remote Cottage in the middle of the Lake District yeah and it’s quite crazy to think how different it’s been compared to Winter and still not anything like we expected no far from it no

Spring comes with warmth life New Beginnings well I guess that’s a romantic idea of it but our spring came with this real cold snap and I don’t feel like this story would be right if I didn’t include it because as cold and as dark as it felt at points it had a

Surprisingly powerful impact too it’s also what made the summer seem even more special as a little summary we really struggled to heat the building properly and there were whole weeks where everything iced over so it’s sometimes pretty hard to leave the house but I think we realize now that it

Was also a really important period for us the cottage and location kind of forc this minimal life Star that brought us together and really made us appreciate the little things in life who needs restaurants eh it was also absolutely stunning outside and so we were constantly going

Off to explore then rushing back home to Shelter by the fire when we got too cold there was a lot of beauty to it that we knew wouldn’t last forever particularly knowing that you get to come back here in front of a fire yeah it’s worth

Freezing to the boat to come back and get cozy this constant process really made this little white building seem like a safe haven and it felt like in a funny way the cold had turned our house into a home much quicker than expected and slowly the season did start to change

Slightly warmer slightly brighter days noticeably longer it was pretty subtle but it filled you with such an energy and optimism so we’d also never had a garden anywhere near this big and this is when Sarah really came into her own because it’s kind of this house has been empty

For a few months the garden was quite overgrown so I’m doing lots of weeding of ping up all the weeds so I really want to kind of get all this done so when my sort of seedling starts grow planting them out sort of this week

I can sort of focus on the veg and everything yeah I’m really hungry now Jay has been working on the computer and I think going to make some lunch and probably wash my hands so what does a beginning of Spring mean to you as a green fingered person a bit of like

Mania trying to get as many seeds of planted as POS possible so that they have their best chance of like coming into fruit in the summer really it was still pretty cold but watching the garden slowly progress was really uplifting this was also the time of year

For one of the biggest events in the local social calendar right what has been our our big decision this morning our big question two potato day or not two potato day in a sentence can you tell me what potato day is 80 varieties of potatoes busy

Busy all these cars are for the Potato Festival it’s safe to say we have never seen so many types of potato in our lives we’ve also never seen so many people this excited by potatoes either we going to get some reub yeah we’re going to get some reub I just cut

Thank you you’re welcome thank you happy planting thank you how did you find potato day I loved it loved it to see see you Giddy and pink in the face from all the but wasn’t it amazing to see all the different potatoes all of the thought and effort and goes into these

Potatoes really really nice what a potato day I’m one happy potato bit by bit there was more life around us in the cottage and even though we rarely saw people we started feeling a lot l isolated oh my God waiting for phone on H I get outside watch with longer days we started

Planning bigger rides and Adventures there are no shops around so we’re really lucky that we fixed bikes ourselves though we did have to be pretty patient with deliveries and Sarah has a rear break again woohoo which means we can go cycling this period was characterized by

Big bold trips up into the hills in dodgy conditions it’s really windy now it was character building for sure but we were always very happy to get back too much and though the days were brighter it was still pretty cold and we were almost out of wood when we first moved d

This log pile was like from there all the way there and about like about that high wow and we just gone through it through the the winter they’re real satisfying that it’s all been dropped it’s warmed us and slowly got maybe like a few few more like

Dropping sessions left with our Fel tree Supply almost out we started relying on log deliveries uh waiting for the wood delivery they’ve definitely not found the house of taking a wrong turning so that is life all the time people just don’t find the place so I got to walk up

Into the up and try and find them and yes so there’s no street lights around here so as soon as it gets dark you get very used to wearing head torches oh my gosh they massive oh my word okay so our stove is a little didly stove yes I think we’re

Pretty much going to have burn one bit at a time setting out all the big ones cuz I’m going to chop them smaller this turned out to be our last vog delivery and though the wood chopping was pretty tiring it’s a process I really miss I’m actually pretty sad thinking

That unless we get another delivery of unusually large logs next winter might not need any chopping and so we kept hold of the last glimpses of the cold making light of things that might usually frustrate us us like washing taking 4 days to dry there was one last cold snap and it

Really went out with a blast finding these fell ponies in the last snow of the year felt really Special with the snow gone spring colors just seem to burst out snow drops and daffodils brightening Landscapes Lambs in the fields buds sprouting and birds chirping the smell of wild garlic wafting through the air this was a really exciting period for us because we’d moved here just as the last leaves were falling

From the trees this was our first time really seeing the wild come alive with life and then came the [Applause] sun Cheers Cheers so then it got to the end of spring or like from Easter onwards and we had these six solid weeks of sunshine yeah everything just kind of

Blossomed into sort of full bloom the trees sort fell of leaves it was really warm we didn’t have much rain at all either we got so used to just continual Sunshine chips eating outside breeding outside trying to work outside as much as we could and everything sort of in

The garden of all the vegetables were really coming to life and in terms of our lifestyle this is when the sooner that light opened up the temperatures increased a little bit so having that time in the morning and and also in the evening to go for walks that of really

Extended the day so it’s 11:00 p.m. just getting dark properly it just felt like a kind of time of opportunity that you had the whole landscape sort of opening up again and coming to life and and big thing was the Lambs coming on um we it was

Starting to get warmer so we keep the windows open the fields were filled with lamb they were so loud at night Dearing in the day and then night you feel like oh sh and they like the cattle on the fields as well and it just it really

Felt as though the whole landscape just all of a sudden really started like blossoming with life and sounds and you got these incredible golden Hues in the morning in the evening lots of bugs starting to come out and you just see this kind of this Haze of of like Golden

Light with all these bugs mites in the in the light these six weeks are sun Sunshine were pure Bliss just so easy and carefree you completely forgot about the cold or any difficulties earlier in the year 6 weeks of solid Sunshine it didn’t feel like it could ever

End from solid sunshine to solid rain July and August ended up being some of the wetest on record and the Lake District is one of the rainiest parts of the UK and it wasn’t just wet there were high winds and temperatures dropped but I guess you’ve just got to make the best

Of the situation it was quite an interesting period because we got limes disease from a bike trip to Scotland and we were quite content taking things slow and after such a long dry patch the rain brought so much vibrancy back to the Landscapes the parch streams were

Flowing again and there was this real beautiful dewy smell in the air I do actually think the lakes are more fittting with Moody atmospheric weather so we just tried to embrace it ready the Lakes didn’t seem to do things in half measures it was 6 weeks of solid

Sunshine 6 weeks of near constant rain and now 7 Days of straight beautiful forecasts immediately those golden Hues came back bugs filled the air again and life just felt abundant I’ve always found the end of summer to be quite a powerful time because you really are trying to cherish

It for all it’s worth knowing soon the temperatures will drop the days will shorten and the seasons will change but for now we were just spending every moment we could outside going for plenty of ret before and after work and really trying to make the most of golden Hour It was also pretty incredible looking back at the progress in the garden I can’t claim too much credit for this this really was Sarah’s passion project but it felt so nice thinking back to those early raised beds doesn’t that much now but give it a little I’ll

Be teaming with life going to potato day planting them out and now getting to enjoy them how you feeling about our potato yield um I was feeling pretty good about it in you commented on it no i’ I’m I’m now I am I’m getting more and more impressed by the

Bucket don’t know maybe a crumble I’m not sure how or a Chutney yeah or a Chutney I’m not sure how sweet they’re going to be whether we’d want to eat them raw you try okay oh Wow she don’t need to buy apples anymore and then came one of the biggest surprises we thought we’d been hearing little meows around the garden and turns out there were these two tiny feral kittens nested in one of the sheds just occasionally poking their heads

Out really sadly their mom got hit by a car a few weeks after we first noticed them and so shaber and natti have joined the family two beautiful kittens who are still very timid but seem to like our company or at the very least watching us from a distance slowly we’re winning their

Trust with the help of a lot of food the cats were another thing that really made the house feel like at home so much more yeah just as the seasons were sort of starting to change it was getting a little bit colder thought of having two kittens at the house just felt quite

Cozy really nice and we had this one last day of sunshine it felt like the last day of summer and we really wanted to use that to kind of scratch that summer and do the things that are really summery so we put together a bit of a

Summer bucket list we cycled up into the hills to go swimming being a tar and obviously you can do that any time of year but not freezing your nips off yeah it was really nice to have one last dip where it was like we felt warm and we

Weren’t just like freezing the whole time you have to go blows of blazes and then on the way back home we found some black Brees to eat by the side of the road which for us I really feel is like this summery real summery

Feel to it and just as the sun was sort of starting to set we were mentioning blackberries and then made it home just to watch The Last Sunset it was beautiful yeah really nostalgic end to the summer and just the seasons really did feel like it slowly getting a little

Bit cooler days were getting shorter Seasons changing summer slowly fading away we used to wish someone would never end but I think we realize now that it’s each season that makes the others feel so unique and special if it wasn’t for winter the summer wouldn’t feel so warm

And if it wasn’t for Autumn spring wouldn’t feel so bright and there’s so much Beauty in watching each season giveway to the next the constant change and noticing the subtle moments within it living here in the cottage surrounded by so much Nature has really reminded us of that so I hope

You enjoyed our little sight into spring and summer in our little cottage yeah it was nothing like we expected but for of lots of Adventures new discoveries adapting and now I feel like we we know what to expect going ahead into we know what winter has been store for us winter and

Autumn thank you for watching folks catch you next time see you bye