The Lake District in North West England is an immensely special place to me. As soon as you’re off the motorway with the bigger hills in the distance and the sounds of gently running streams, you can feel the tension ebbing away, your shoulders slackening and thoughts turn to solitude on the fells, the cosy inn with a log fire in winter or an icy cold drink by the lake in summer. 

Huntingstile was once a large Lakeland lodge in the poet Wordsworth’s family and sits between Grasmere Lake and Huntingstile Crag (after which the property is named), in the central fells. Looking out towards the Fairfield Horseshoe and Helvellyn, the back garden gradually releases the view, packed as it is with a riotous burst of azaleas, rhododendron and maple trees, all serving to dapple the light and pick out highlighted flowers and leaves.

I love this view, and with a glass of something special it is supremely private and isolated away from modern life. The view from the front is also one to be savoured and an imminent project….