And then...

Thirteen years ago I had this sudden urge to develop Pennine View from the small cottage on a big plot of land into a somewhat bigger country residence. The project was a huge success and you can read all about it (or at least as much as I am willing to tell you) in the posts below.

I rather thought that I was done with big projects but it seems not. Nine months ago I was struck by another sudden urge, this time to get a little sports car for those nice sunny days that we occasionally get up here in Cumbria. Well that rather genteel notion was never going to suffice and so it was that I ended up buying a Jaguar F-type, all eight cylinders, five litres and 550 horsepower of it. 

Now the F-type, whilst great fun is a totally impractical car, being a true two seater with a rather small boot - but an enormous, E-type-esque bonnet to hide that chunky V8 engine. Not much good for carrying stuff, in other words. It's also rather low to the ground and some of my less agile friends do not fit into it well...

And so I became a two car household.

Pennine View does have a double garage but half of that is full of workshop, a garden tractor and other maintenance paraphernalia needed for a couple of acres of prime Cumbrian countryside. Then there's all the usual stuff that one acquires after 25 years of living in the same place. So in practice, it's a bit of a fight to fit just one car into the remaining space. I really would prefer to be able to get both cars under cover, especially during the winter months when it can get pretty wild up here.

And so a new project is born and this Blog awakens from its slumbers as documentary evidence.  

Pennine View in March 2026 - a view from my drone