Most of it is closer than you think
You do not have to go far. Great Wood and Cockshot are a walk from the town centre; Dodd Wood and Whinlatter are a short drive or a bus ride, and both are among the best places in England to look for a red squirrel. The ospreys are eight miles north.
And the sheep are everywhere — on the fells, on the passes, and quite often in the middle of the road.
Three ways in
Native to these fells, out on the mountain all winter, and never straying from the patch of hillside where they were suckled. Plus how to count them in Cumbrian.
Read moreYan, tyan, tethera
When to come for what
Bluebells at Rannerdale are the second week of May and gone by June. Lambing runs April into May. The ospreys are here from about April to August and nowhere at all in winter, which catches people out.
Red squirrels are the exception — they do not hibernate, and a cold bright morning in the conifers is as good a time as any. Fungi are an autumn thing, and the heather on the northern fells is a fortnight in late August.