With 1,500 square miles to explore, from its romantic attractions to its wild landscapes and the easy rural lifestyle, there are no decent public facilities but certainly no shortage of beautiful places to stay with the Lake District. See below our hand-picked selection.

Lined with charming cobbled(铺鹅卵石的) streets, Ulverston is a pretty historic market town located just South of the Lake District. It is a delightful escape from the crowd-filled attractions in the Southern Lakes, yet is just a stone’s throw away from them.

Grasmere is forever linked to the world-renowned Lakeland poets, most notably William Wordsworth. Each year, many make the travel to Dove Cottage in Grasmere, where some of Wordsworth’s most famous works were written. From towering peaks to tasty treats,a holiday in Grasmere would also not be complete without a taste of the famous Grasmere Gingerbread that’s been made here since the mid-19th century.

Home to many traditional stone buildings and charming scenery, Cartmel is a primitive village in South Cumbria. Appreciating the colorful glass windows and sculptures makes it a memorable visit. Cartmel’s sticky pudding,a traditional English dessert from this Lake District village, is a must-try. Cartmel’s restaurants and pubs provide a wide range of food and drink to recharge the batteries after an exhausting hike.

Known as the gateway to the Lakes, Kendal is a busy town hosting a selection of restaurants and shops, which makes it an excellent touring base. You can also enjoy the surrounding views of landscapes and lakes from the hilltop. Both Windermere and the Cumbrian coast are easy to reach, making it a fine location for lovers of both coast and countryside.

Jude and Leo Hawes have come a long way since they entered the world, born at just 29weeks. Airlifted from their home in Launceston to hospital in Hobart, the twins, now happy and healthy two-year-olds, were delivered into the ICU to be cared for and monitored. A gift from the Tasmanian branch of Octopus for a Preemie (早产儿) for them was a light in the dark.

“These stories really do remind us why we all spend so much time and our own money making these octopuses (章鱼),” Bianca, the co-founder of the project, tells Woman’s Day. “It means the world to me that I can do something in whatever small way to make the journey for the babies and parents just that little bit easier. I believe if we can help others, no matter how small a way it is, then we should.”

The eight-legged creatures are specially created to calm and comfort early newborns.“In instances where the babies can’t be held for weeks, or even months, the familiarity of the parents’ scent (气味) on the octopuses can help with the bonding process because babies already know it as a safe scent when parents can finally hold them,”Bianca says.

The volunteer project began after a nurse reached out to Bianca to create a prototype of octopus she could take into hospital for a trial.

“It took me a good four to five months to teach myself how to write a pattern and get it approved,”explains Bianca, who creates the handmade helpful octopuses for no cost to families in need.

“I started making them as fast as I could, but I wasn’t able to make the amount they needed.” Soon Bianca met the group’s other co-founder Andrea Carey and the pair started creating the creatures in together in their spare time.

“I have always enjoyed being creative and my imagination runs wild with colour combinations,” says Bianca, her Facebook page Octopus for a Preemie Tasmania accumulating more than 2000 followers.“It makes my day!”

Look up over the white sand beaches of Mauritius and you may see a huge sail. It’s much like the kind used by kite surfers but the size of a three-bedroom apartment. The sail isn’t a tourist attraction—it’s creating electricity for this island off the east coast of Africa.

Launched in December 2021 by SkySails Power, the massive wing is the world’s first fully autonomous commercial “airborne wind energy”system. For the past two months, it has been delivering a little under its goal of 100 kilowatts—typically enough to power up to 50 homes.

To harvest wind energy from the heights where wind blows fastest, the key may be to fly a kite. These systems come in a container and can be dropped off wherever there’s a road or dock (码头). They can also be tied to a fixed ship in deep waters. Their height is adaptable, so they can be moved up or down to wherever the wind blows the hardest, which often changes with the seasons.

SkySails actually started back in 2001 with a different purpose: building soft kite wings to pull massive ships along at sea. In 2015 SkySails shifted focus to producing electricity with SkySails Power.

SkySails’system relies on a roughly 150 square metre wing to ride on the wind. There are no turbines(涡轮机) up in the air, and the line isn’t an electric wire. Instead, the energy is generated on the ground, from the pull on the line.“The brake on the winch(绞车) is generating the electricity,” says Fagiano, the chief officer. Software flies the kite autonomously in a figure-of-eight pattern to get the strongest pull possible to produce energy. The system then changes the wing’s flight pattern so it can be pulled in with minimal resistance, expending a little energy to wind it back. This pattern repeats, creating far more energy than it consumes.

The sails have less impact on the skyline than traditional turbines and are quieter too, says Fagiano. And they make economic sense for anyone currently paying more than $0.30 per kilowatt hour from traditional generators.

The Atlantic salmon (鲑鱼) of Scotland are hardy and determined animals. Each spring and summer, they return from the North Atlantic Ocean to lay eggs in Scotland’s shallow rivers,leaping up waterfalls and over barriers, pushing themselves upstream in enormous efforts. Some fail, and others succeed, but today they face yet another challenge.

During the mid-1980s, there were between eight and ten million salmon swimming around Scotland’s Atlantic coast; that number has now dropped sharply. There’s evidence of reducing the availability of the salmon’s prey (猎物) as climate change warms and acidifies oceans. New research suggests climate change is also bearing down on rivers, which is bad news for salmon.Adapted to life in cold water, salmon experience slow growth and population changes at high temperatures. Heat influences their health and reduces their resistance to disease.

“Now salmon are struggling to deal with the rising temperatures. There are recent records of 27°C in the upper reaches of the Dee catchment,” says Peter Cairns, director of an environmental charity. In 2018, Scotland recorded the lowest pole catch for salmon since records began. Evidence suggests that the degraded quality of river worsens the impact of our changing climate. “Atlantic salmon evolved using river systems in Scotland that were once way more forested and therefore shaded.” Yet Scotland is today one of the least wooded countries in Europe, with just 3 percent of its native woodland undamaged. Scientists have found that just 35percent of rivers in Scotland have enough tree cover for salmon survival.

A movement to get trees back on riverbanks is gathering pace. “Broad-leaf trees close tothe bank can reduce the light that enters the water,” explains fisheries scientist Anthony Hawkins. A new initiative called Riverwoods — led by the Scottish Wildlife Trust and supported by Scottish Water and several other government and regulatory bodies — aims to create a network of woodlands along Scotland’s riverbanks, and has already received a number of large funds.“Money is not the pressing business. River health is complex, but tree planting is one of the most basic things we can get started with right away,”says Cairns.