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#keswick — Public Fediverse posts

Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #keswick, aggregated by home.social.

  1. @howisyourdog
    The Pencil Museum in Keswick is small and not cheap to get in, plus the car park is a separate charge.

    But, it's comprehensive in it's history of the development of graphite into modern pencil manufacturing.
    There's a lot of displays of.... pencils, and pencil sharpeners and pencil boxes and did I mention pencils!
    There a good film and display of ww2 secret pencil development (yes, really!).
    Excellent, inexpensive café, and a shop selling..... pencils (and other art supplies).

    Despite the above snarky comments, we really enjoyed our visit, and would recommend a visit, once.

    #Cumbria #Holiday #PencilMuseum #Keswick

  2. If anyone is after a #tandem to test out if they like it Oxfam in #Keswick has one for sale. If I could work out how to get it home I’d take it myself!

    #BikeTooter

  3. Pop Culture Library Review @popculturelibraries.wordpress.com@popculturelibraries.wordpress.com ·

    Attempted and successful library tourism in Edinburgh and Northern England

    Beyond the NLS, Scotland has various libraries within the country. There’s over twenty public libraries in Edinburgh alone. The day after I visited the NLS, I traveled to Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RGBE) by bus. This garden is akin to Longwood Gardens in Pennsylvania. It has a beautiful plant collection, and a special library. However, the library isn’t accessible from the garden, a clear barrier to entry. Furthermore, the science, learning and archives section is only accessible by appointment. That is too bad. If it had been accessible from the garden I may have visited it. There are museums and various collections within the garden as well. Every plant has a specific identifying number associated with it.

    Note: This serves as the beginning of my series, which begins, chronologically, with my guest post on Reel Librarians, on February 11th, entitled “Edinburgh and the National Library of Scotland: Library tourism redux.” It will be reposted on here over a month later. There will be two more parts of this series, focusing on my continued library tourism in London and Belgium coming later this year. Links to those will be added to this post later.

    The RGBE website describes the library as providing the “basic tools” to support research and organization of biodiversity into a “manageable framework to underpin ecological and biological research.” This makes it even more unfortunate that the “extensive” library, said to be the Scottish national reference collection for “specialist botanical and horticultural resources” with over one million items, cannot be accessed from the garden itself. A pamphlet purchased for two pounds says directly: “no access from Garden,” putting this barrier into writing.

    Photograph of part of a pamphlet noting that the RGBE library cannot be accessed from the garden (My photograph)

    The second part of my vacation involved staying one week at HF Holidays’ Derwent Bank house, which sits on Derwent Water lake, to hike throughout the acclaimed and well-known Lake District, in Cumbria. Some of the hikes were arduous, although that might not be the case if you were physically fit, unlike myself, who wasn’t as fit as other hikers. I wanted to hike there as it was blazing hot in Baltimore, where I live. Other hikers were primarily from England and the Netherlands. The hikes often involved going through sheep grazing areas, avoiding sheep poop in the process, with beautiful views, and a visit to the Castlerigg Stone Circle.

    On the fifth day of hiking, on July 31st, the coach bus I was riding in, with fellow hikers passed by the Keswick library. It looked to be one big room filled with desktop computers. Further research indicated that this library offers printing, loanable dementia bags and storysacks, hearing aid batteries, and more. It’s located off the town’s main street, with some nearby parking lots (they call them “car parks” in England), plus a bus station 200 yards from the library. It also hosts board games, a Lego club, jigsaw puzzle building, mindful coloring, books to help with well-being and health, and more.

    Lastly was a bookshelf almost akin to the Little Free “Library” collections in the U.S. (but without serving a physical manifestation of a “desire to privatize the world”), at the Penrith train station. See you at the next post, where my journey continues, in London!

    © 2025-2026 Burkely Hermann. All rights reserved.

    Sources used

    #CastleriggStoneCircle #castleriggstonecircle #Cumbria #DerwentBank #Edinburgh #England #gardens #HFHolidays #Keswick #LakeDistrict #lakes #libraryTourism #LongwoodGardens #maps #memory #museums #NationalLibraryOfScotland #Penrith #publicTransit #ReelLibrarians #restrictions #Scotland #shortBlogs

  4. Pop Culture Library Review @popculturelibraries.wordpress.com@popculturelibraries.wordpress.com ·

    Attempted and successful library tourism in Edinburgh and Northern England

    Beyond the NLS, Scotland has various libraries within the country. There’s over twenty public libraries in Edinburgh alone. The day after I visited the NLS, I traveled to Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RGBE) by bus. This garden is akin to Longwood Gardens in Pennsylvania. It has a beautiful plant collection, and a special library. However, the library isn’t accessible from the garden, a clear barrier to entry. Furthermore, the science, learning and archives section is only accessible by appointment. That is too bad. If it had been accessible from the garden I may have visited it. There are museums and various collections within the garden as well. Every plant has a specific identifying number associated with it.

    Note: This serves as the beginning of my series, which begins, chronologically, with my guest post on Reel Librarians, on February 11th, entitled “Edinburgh and the National Library of Scotland: Library tourism redux.” It will be reposted on here over a month later. There will be two more parts of this series, focusing on my continued library tourism in London and Belgium coming later this year. Links to those will be added to this post later.

    The RGBE website describes the library as providing the “basic tools” to support research and organization of biodiversity into a “manageable framework to underpin ecological and biological research.” This makes it even more unfortunate that the “extensive” library, said to be the Scottish national reference collection for “specialist botanical and horticultural resources” with over one million items, cannot be accessed from the garden itself. A pamphlet purchased for two pounds says directly: “no access from Garden,” putting this barrier into writing.

    Photograph of part of a pamphlet noting that the RGBE library cannot be accessed from the garden (My photograph)

    The second part of my vacation involved staying one week at HF Holidays’ Derwent Bank house, which sits on Derwent Water lake, to hike throughout the acclaimed and well-known Lake District, in Cumbria. Some of the hikes were arduous, although that might not be the case if you were physically fit, unlike myself, who wasn’t as fit as other hikers. I wanted to hike there as it was blazing hot in Baltimore, where I live. Other hikers were primarily from England and the Netherlands. The hikes often involved going through sheep grazing areas, avoiding sheep poop in the process, with beautiful views, and a visit to the Castlerigg Stone Circle.

    On the fifth day of hiking, on July 31st, the coach bus I was riding in, with fellow hikers passed by the Keswick library. It looked to be one big room filled with desktop computers. Further research indicated that this library offers printing, loanable dementia bags and storysacks, hearing aid batteries, and more. It’s located off the town’s main street, with some nearby parking lots (they call them “car parks” in England), plus a bus station 200 yards from the library. It also hosts board games, a Lego club, jigsaw puzzle building, mindful coloring, books to help with well-being and health, and more.

    Lastly was a bookshelf almost akin to the Little Free “Library” collections in the U.S. (but without serving a physical manifestation of a “desire to privatize the world”), at the Penrith train station. See you at the next post, where my journey continues, in London!

    © 2025-2026 Burkely Hermann. All rights reserved.

    Sources used

    #CastleriggStoneCircle #castleriggstonecircle #Cumbria #DerwentBank #Edinburgh #England #gardens #HFHolidays #Keswick #LakeDistrict #lakes #libraryTourism #LongwoodGardens #maps #memory #museums #NationalLibraryOfScotland #Penrith #publicTransit #ReelLibrarians #restrictions #Scotland #shortBlogs

  5. Pop Culture Library Review @popculturelibraries.wordpress.com@popculturelibraries.wordpress.com ·

    Attempted and successful library tourism in Edinburgh and Northern England

    Beyond the NLS, Scotland has various libraries within the country. There’s over twenty public libraries in Edinburgh alone. The day after I visited the NLS, I traveled to Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RGBE) by bus. This garden is akin to Longwood Gardens in Pennsylvania. It has a beautiful plant collection, and a special library. However, the library isn’t accessible from the garden, a clear barrier to entry. Furthermore, the science, learning and archives section is only accessible by appointment. That is too bad. If it had been accessible from the garden I may have visited it. There are museums and various collections within the garden as well. Every plant has a specific identifying number associated with it.

    Note: This serves as the beginning of my series, which begins, chronologically, with my guest post on Reel Librarians, on February 11th, entitled “Edinburgh and the National Library of Scotland: Library tourism redux.” It will be reposted on here over a month later. There will be two more parts of this series, focusing on my continued library tourism in London and Belgium coming later this year. Links to those will be added to this post later.

    The RGBE website describes the library as providing the “basic tools” to support research and organization of biodiversity into a “manageable framework to underpin ecological and biological research.” This makes it even more unfortunate that the “extensive” library, said to be the Scottish national reference collection for “specialist botanical and horticultural resources” with over one million items, cannot be accessed from the garden itself. A pamphlet purchased for two pounds says directly: “no access from Garden,” putting this barrier into writing.

    Photograph of part of a pamphlet noting that the RGBE library cannot be accessed from the garden (My photograph)

    The second part of my vacation involved staying one week at HF Holidays’ Derwent Bank house, which sits on Derwent Water lake, to hike throughout the acclaimed and well-known Lake District, in Cumbria. Some of the hikes were arduous, although that might not be the case if you were physically fit, unlike myself, who wasn’t as fit as other hikers. I wanted to hike there as it was blazing hot in Baltimore, where I live. Other hikers were primarily from England and the Netherlands. The hikes often involved going through sheep grazing areas, avoiding sheep poop in the process, with beautiful views, and a visit to the Castlerigg Stone Circle.

    On the fifth day of hiking, on July 31st, the coach bus I was riding in, with fellow hikers passed by the Keswick library. It looked to be one big room filled with desktop computers. Further research indicated that this library offers printing, loanable dementia bags and storysacks, hearing aid batteries, and more. It’s located off the town’s main street, with some nearby parking lots (they call them “car parks” in England), plus a bus station 200 yards from the library. It also hosts board games, a Lego club, jigsaw puzzle building, mindful coloring, books to help with well-being and health, and more.

    Lastly was a bookshelf almost akin to the Little Free “Library” collections in the U.S. (but without serving a physical manifestation of a “desire to privatize the world”), at the Penrith train station. See you at the next post, where my journey continues, in London!

    © 2025-2026 Burkely Hermann. All rights reserved.

    Sources used

    #CastleriggStoneCircle #castleriggstonecircle #Cumbria #DerwentBank #Edinburgh #England #gardens #HFHolidays #Keswick #LakeDistrict #lakes #libraryTourism #LongwoodGardens #maps #memory #museums #NationalLibraryOfScotland #Penrith #publicTransit #ReelLibrarians #restrictions #Scotland #shortBlogs

  6. Pop Culture Library Review @popculturelibraries.wordpress.com@popculturelibraries.wordpress.com ·

    Attempted and successful library tourism in Edinburgh and Northern England

    Beyond the NLS, Scotland has various libraries within the country. There’s over twenty public libraries in Edinburgh alone. The day after I visited the NLS, I traveled to Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RGBE) by bus. This garden is akin to Longwood Gardens in Pennsylvania. It has a beautiful plant collection, and a special library. However, the library isn’t accessible from the garden, a clear barrier to entry. Furthermore, the science, learning and archives section is only accessible by appointment. That is too bad. If it had been accessible from the garden I may have visited it. There are museums and various collections within the garden as well. Every plant has a specific identifying number associated with it.

    Note: This serves as the beginning of my series, which begins, chronologically, with my guest post on Reel Librarians, on February 11th, entitled “Edinburgh and the National Library of Scotland: Library tourism redux.” It will be reposted on here over a month later. There will be two more parts of this series, focusing on my continued library tourism in London and Belgium coming later this year. Links to those will be added to this post later.

    The RGBE website describes the library as providing the “basic tools” to support research and organization of biodiversity into a “manageable framework to underpin ecological and biological research.” This makes it even more unfortunate that the “extensive” library, said to be the Scottish national reference collection for “specialist botanical and horticultural resources” with over one million items, cannot be accessed from the garden itself. A pamphlet purchased for two pounds says directly: “no access from Garden,” putting this barrier into writing.

    Photograph of part of a pamphlet noting that the RGBE library cannot be accessed from the garden (My photograph)

    The second part of my vacation involved staying one week at HF Holidays’ Derwent Bank house, which sits on Derwent Water lake, to hike throughout the acclaimed and well-known Lake District, in Cumbria. Some of the hikes were arduous, although that might not be the case if you were physically fit, unlike myself, who wasn’t as fit as other hikers. I wanted to hike there as it was blazing hot in Baltimore, where I live. Other hikers were primarily from England and the Netherlands. The hikes often involved going through sheep grazing areas, avoiding sheep poop in the process, with beautiful views, and a visit to the Castlerigg Stone Circle.

    On the fifth day of hiking, on July 31st, the coach bus I was riding in, with fellow hikers passed by the Keswick library. It looked to be one big room filled with desktop computers. Further research indicated that this library offers printing, loanable dementia bags and storysacks, hearing aid batteries, and more. It’s located off the town’s main street, with some nearby parking lots (they call them “car parks” in England), plus a bus station 200 yards from the library. It also hosts board games, a Lego club, jigsaw puzzle building, mindful coloring, books to help with well-being and health, and more.

    Lastly was a bookshelf almost akin to the Little Free “Library” collections in the U.S. (but without serving a physical manifestation of a “desire to privatize the world”), at the Penrith train station. See you at the next post, where my journey continues, in London!

    © 2025-2026 Burkely Hermann. All rights reserved.

    Sources used

    #CastleriggStoneCircle #castleriggstonecircle #Cumbria #DerwentBank #Edinburgh #England #gardens #HFHolidays #Keswick #LakeDistrict #lakes #libraryTourism #LongwoodGardens #maps #memory #museums #NationalLibraryOfScotland #Penrith #publicTransit #ReelLibrarians #restrictions #Scotland #shortBlogs

  7. Pop Culture Library Review @popculturelibraries.wordpress.com@popculturelibraries.wordpress.com ·

    Attempted and successful library tourism in Edinburgh and Northern England

    Beyond the NLS, Scotland has various libraries within the country. There’s over twenty public libraries in Edinburgh alone. The day after I visited the NLS, I traveled to Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RGBE) by bus. This garden is akin to Longwood Gardens in Pennsylvania. It has a beautiful plant collection, and a special library. However, the library isn’t accessible from the garden, a clear barrier to entry. Furthermore, the science, learning and archives section is only accessible by appointment. That is too bad. If it had been accessible from the garden I may have visited it. There are museums and various collections within the garden as well. Every plant has a specific identifying number associated with it.

    Note: This serves as the beginning of my series, which begins, chronologically, with my guest post on Reel Librarians, on February 11th, entitled “Edinburgh and the National Library of Scotland: Library tourism redux.” It will be reposted on here over a month later. There will be two more parts of this series, focusing on my continued library tourism in London and Belgium coming later this year. Links to those will be added to this post later.

    The RGBE website describes the library as providing the “basic tools” to support research and organization of biodiversity into a “manageable framework to underpin ecological and biological research.” This makes it even more unfortunate that the “extensive” library, said to be the Scottish national reference collection for “specialist botanical and horticultural resources” with over one million items, cannot be accessed from the garden itself. A pamphlet purchased for two pounds says directly: “no access from Garden,” putting this barrier into writing.

    Photograph of part of a pamphlet noting that the RGBE library cannot be accessed from the garden (My photograph)

    The second part of my vacation involved staying one week at HF Holidays’ Derwent Bank house, which sits on Derwent Water lake, to hike throughout the acclaimed and well-known Lake District, in Cumbria. Some of the hikes were arduous, although that might not be the case if you were physically fit, unlike myself, who wasn’t as fit as other hikers. I wanted to hike there as it was blazing hot in Baltimore, where I live. Other hikers were primarily from England and the Netherlands. The hikes often involved going through sheep grazing areas, avoiding sheep poop in the process, with beautiful views, and a visit to the Castlerigg Stone Circle.

    On the fifth day of hiking, on July 31st, the coach bus I was riding in, with fellow hikers passed by the Keswick library. It looked to be one big room filled with desktop computers. Further research indicated that this library offers printing, loanable dementia bags and storysacks, hearing aid batteries, and more. It’s located off the town’s main street, with some nearby parking lots (they call them “car parks” in England), plus a bus station 200 yards from the library. It also hosts board games, a Lego club, jigsaw puzzle building, mindful coloring, books to help with well-being and health, and more.

    Lastly was a bookshelf almost akin to the Little Free “Library” collections in the U.S. (but without serving a physical manifestation of a “desire to privatize the world”), at the Penrith train station. See you at the next post, where my journey continues, in London!

    © 2025-2026 Burkely Hermann. All rights reserved.

    Sources used

    #CastleriggStoneCircle #castleriggstonecircle #Cumbria #DerwentBank #Edinburgh #England #gardens #HFHolidays #Keswick #LakeDistrict #lakes #libraryTourism #LongwoodGardens #maps #memory #museums #NationalLibraryOfScotland #Penrith #publicTransit #ReelLibrarians #restrictions #Scotland #shortBlogs

  8. The Skiddaw Hermit : Eccentricity on a Mountaintop

    Many of you have likely heard of Millican Dalton, the so-called hermit and adventurer of Castle Crag in Borrowdale. In the 1920s and 30s, he managed to carve out a reputation by living in a cave and offering guided walks and canoe trips for tourists seeking a bit of excitement. A hermit in name only, he was more of a seasonal escapee from the drudgery of o ...

    fhithich.uk/?p=37108

    #Keswick #LakeDistrict #Skiddaw #history

  9. #Keswick’s newly installed flood defences were breached, and downstream hundreds of homes were flooded

    The combination of the heavy rainfall through the autumn, heightened with #StormDesmond, and then in combination with the reservoir opening its overflow pipes caused massive disruption from the flooding, hundreds made homeless, and a massive £500 million cost to the economy.

    4/