Crook Road, Fair View Farm

Driving back from Bowness, early morning line painting made me stop at a grey rendered building I have long admired. Not for its beauty, nor its outlook, but its understated presence, the grey render, and the view south over the Lyth valley, which can only just be seen.  Like many Lakeland farms, the main windows and rooms face south, and although I have never been in, I imagine that the pantry and scullery are on the other side, facing north to keep the products cold. Both farmsI have lived in have had massive stone slates to store meat and dairy products at a relatively colder temperature.  Attached is a barn, with substantial wall ties literally keeping the walls together.  Wordsworth was a fan of the whitewashed cottage, and it has entered the subconscious as a desirable place to be in, as seen by the prices charged to stay in such buildings as holiday lets.  Some of the render used on cottages is pink: traditionally this would have been from pigs blood, but nowadays is more likely to come from a specialist product at a local builders’ merchants in Kendal.