shewhomust | Kendal, come rain come shine

What I like best about Kendal (apart from its comics festival, obviously) is its 'yards'. As you walk along the main street, you peer into the gaps between two properties, expecting to see an ordinary backyard or parking space, and instead see another, miniature street sloping away down to the river, or up the side of the hill. Some of them have names, but most of them are too small even for that. This, for example, is Yard 77:

If I had to choose one of my photos of Kendal to show you, I'd pick this one, in all its monochrome glory (it was taken on Sunday morning, just as the rain stopped). Luckily, I don't have to make that choice...

So, as I was saying, Sunday was the day for strolling around the town, and we started with a look at the river, to see how it was getting on:

Lively, but not threatening! I liked this handy indicator:

The bridge carries the A65 across the eiver Kent, so it's a fairly major road; and there is more town beyond it, mostly houses, and a park, at the top of which is the castle. But we were on our way to the Brewery, so we turned back up through the back lanes to Highgate. Here's a glimpse through into Dr Manning's Yard:

Here's what you see if you walk through the passage into the yard:

as I did when I went out for a wander in the afternoon. By now the sun was shining. I'd been intrigued by this tree even in the rain, but in the sunshine it was magical:

This is the access point from the Market Place, not to a yard this time but to an entire shopping street, the New Shambles.

And finally, here's another lamppost, at the top of Branthwaite Brow (isn't that a great name for a street?):

The shop-front on the left is the Thai takeaway, and the sunlit space at the top is the Market Place. You can't see the access to our hideaway (in Yard 30) because it is hidden behind the projecting building on the right - there's a reason why it's called a Hideaway.