Welcome to Holker Hall & Garden

Visitor Information

How to Get to Holker

By car: Follow brown signs on A590 from J36, M6. Approximate travel times: Windermere-20 minutes, Kendal-25 minutes, Lancaster-45 minutes, Manchester-l hour 30 minutes.

By rail:The Nearest station is Cark-in-Cartmel with trains to Carnforth, Lancaster and Preston for connections to major cities & airports.

Opening times

Sunday-Friday (closed on Saturday) 11:00 am-4:00 pm, 30 March-2nd November.

Admission Charges

Hall & Gardens   Gardens

Adults:               £12.00        £8.00

Groups:                   £9.00          £5.5

Special Events

Producers: Market 13th April

Join us to taste a variety of fresh local food and drinks. Meet the producers and get some excellent recipe ideas.

Holker Garden Festival 30th May

The event celebrates its 22nd anniversary with a great show of the very best of gardening, making it one of the most popular events in gardening.

National Garden Day 28th August

Holker once again opens its gardens in aid of the disadvantaged. For just a small donation you can take a tour with our garden guide.

Winter Market 8th November

This is an event for all the family! Wander among a variety of shops selling gifts while enjoying a live music show and nice street entertainment.

Madame Tussaudˈs Wax (蜡) Museum, London

Madame Tussaudˈs Wax Museum was first set up in Paris in 1770, moved to London in 1802 and moved to its present address in 1884. The collection of famous people of the past and present is kept up to date. Visitors will see Henry Ⅷ and his six wives, the present Queen and royal family, leading figures of the French Revolution and so on. In 1993, a new section was added to it, the “Spirit of London”, a journey through London  from medieval times (中世纪) to the present day.

Address:

Madame Tussaudˈs Marylebone Road

London NWI 5LR United Kingdom

Hours:

It is open from 9:30 to 17:30 from Monday to Sunday and always closed on Christmas Day (December 25).

Cost:

Adult: ￡25.00.

Child 16 under: ￡21.00.

Child 4 under: FREE.

Tips:

Extra money applies to (适用) some peak periods.

Group rates apply to 10 or more persons.

Combined tickets for Madame Tussaudˈs and the London Planetarium (天文馆) are available at reduced rate.

Opening hours may vary throughout the year.

Directions:

By Tube (地铁): Madame Tussaudˈs is a two-minute walk from Baker Street tube station.

By Train: Marylebone Station is within 10 minutes walking distance of Madame Tussaudˈs.

By Bus: The following bus numbers travel to Madame Tussaudˈs: 13, 18, 27, 30, 74, 82, 113, 139 and 274.

Guitar Lessons for Guitar Players

Playing the same things over and over again when you pick up the guitar? Teaching yourself for years but you hit a wall? Don’t know what to do next? Whether you’re a total beginner, or an old guitar player, we’ll get you working on something you can benefit from. I’m a professional teacher, over 30 students at my studio in downtown Berkeley and several music schools in San Francisco, Alameda, and Mountain View.

No matter what style you’re into, I guarantee there are songs by your favorite bands that you could learn.

Call at 510-333-9091 or e-mail at bluescho0147@gmail.com

Dance Classes for Students 2 5 Through Adult

In Motion Dance Center in Martinez is now accepting registration（注册）for all fall dance classes. There are classes offered in Jazz, Tap, Ballet, Hip -Hop, Contemporary and Cheerleading. Classes run like the school year Sept through June. Prices are very reasonable at only $45a month. That’s for a one-hour class once a week for a month. This studio is known for their younger child program. We are always looking for talented instructors too. If you want more information call Deena at 925-229-5678.

Qi Gong with Angie

Qi Gong is the perfect activity for anyone, at any age. It combines gentle movement and meditation（冥想）, breathing regulation and relaxation. The exercises are designed to reduce stress and anxiety and improve blood and energy circulation（循环）throughout the body, therefore increasing immune（免疫的）function, improving energy levels and sleep.

Thousands of Qi Gong lovers around the world have experienced the extraordinary benefits of this gentle, ancient Chinese exercise form and are healthier and happier for it. Join us to experience the benefits for yourself!

WHEN: Tuesdays from noon ～ 1pm

WHERE: Halanda Studio 1062 Lincoln Avenue, San Jose, CA 95125

COST: $12 per class drop-in (即到即学的) or $45 for a pre-paid set of 4 classes

CONTACT: Angie at angie@lokahiacupuncture.com , 408-887-6000

How old are the apps on your smartphone? Is it time for an update? Here are three apps for you. Try themout and have fun.

Duolingo

Learning a foreign language doesn’t always mean you have to sit in a class and take endless exams. An app called Duolingo has been designed to help you memorize new words and grammar in creative ways, such as online lessons, games and interesting exercises. For example, one exercise asks you to put words in the right order to make the correct sentence. You can also try translation practice.

Douban FM

A music app isa necessity for almost every smartphone now. Douban FM might be the right thing for you.

There is no playlist on Douban FM—songs just keep streaming one by one. You can use the “heart”, “trash” and “skip” buttons to mark the songs you like, don’t like and want to cut short, respectively. Those marked with a heart will be stored in another list as your favorites for you to listen to anytime you want. Douban FM also has different channels. There are many types of music, such as blues, jazz, and pop. You can choose the music for outdoor activities, work or studying depending on your mood.

Flipboard

It is one of the hottest news apps right now. With Flipboard, you can make everything personal to you. All you have to do is open up the app, “flip through” to select whatever interests you, and click the “+” button. At the end you’ll have your own magazine, complete with a front page, new articles, and information.

Sydneyˈs Royal Botanic Gardens are to start a war on gray-headed flying foxes. These super bats have invaded one of Australia’s most famous public spaces. Officials have said the animals are destroying trees and have to move on.

These unwanted guests at Sydney’s Royal Botanic Gardens look like tiny foxes with wings. Officials have estimated there are about 11,000 of them living in the picturesque harbor-side park. After inspecting damage to dozens of trees they now believe there are twice as many as previously thought. Branches have been breaking under the weight of these furry invaders and their droppings have been poisoning plants.

Help may well be at hand, however, in the shape of the ordinary garbage bin. The gardens’ director Dr. Tim Entwistle hopes the unpleasant sounds of crashing bin lids will agitate the flying foxes and force them to move on. “The way to disturb them is to use noises, so we’ve used the loud noises made by rubbish bins in the past. You can also use speakers as long as you move the noise around, and what we’ll do is have a series of noises, at the beginning and end of the day. What we’ve found in the past is that the flying foxes leave the gardens and go somewhere else,” said Tim.

The gray-headed flying fox is Australia’s largest bat. It flies around at night using its eyes and a powerful sense of smell to search for fruit and flowers. Officials at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Sydney have said they’re optimistic the unwelcome colony can be uprooted. If and when the bats do move to other parts of the city they will of course then become someone else’s problem.

The following are some of the most impressive engineering/ construction achievements to date, taking into consideration the time when they were built and the knowledge and materials that were available to designers.

White Pass and Yukon Route Railroad, Canada

Built during the Klondike Gold Rush and financed largely by British investors, “ the railroad built on gold” was constructed in just 26 months, using 450 tons of explosives to explode a route through Canada’s coastal mountains. Passengers should hold on tight – the railroad climbs almost 278 meters in just 32 kilometers. Completion date: July 29, 1900.

Burj Khalifa, Dubai, UAE

The Burj Khalifa reaches a height of 828 meters and is both the tallest building in the world and the tallest free-standing structure in the world. Engineers faced many challenges, including the strong winds that batter the tower. Because of this, over 40 wind tunnel tests were conducted, not just to determine how the wind would affect the building but also to test the cranes used to construct it. Completion date: January 4, 2010.

Trans-Siberian Railroad, Russia

The Trans-Siberian Railroad connects Moscow and Eastern Russia with Japan, China and Mongolia. Northern Siberia isn’t the easiest landscape to cross, which is what makes the 8,851-kilometer Trans-Siberian railway so impressive. Engineers had to design a railway that was capable of operating in temperatures of minus 20 degrees Celsius. The railway travels through eight time zones, 87 towns and cities and crosses 16 major rivers. Some 90,000 people helped construct the railway, which took 10years to build. Completion date: 1904.

A homeless man is fast becoming an Internet sensation（引起轰动的人）with his video blog of life on the street of Moscow, it’s reported. Yevgeny Yakut moved to the Russian capital, hoping to live better, but soon found himself one of the many homeless people in the city known for its housing shortage and high cost of living. But he thinks he has found a way out. “I was warming myself in a railway station when I saw television report on bloggers earning money by making advertisements,” he tells the TV channel Moscow 360. A young passer-by got chatting to him about the idea, and agreed to be Mr. Yakut’s cameraman, using a smart phone to record his friend’s humorous stories of daily struggle to “find food, a place to sleep, and keep out of the way of the police.” So viewers could see how he lives in central Moscow without a home.

They upload the regular videos to YouTube, where Mr. Yakut is hoping to attract enough subscribers（订阅者）to interest advertisers in his channel. So far, the pair have attracted more than 18,000 subscribers---around half of those since Russian media began reporting his story and more than 450,000 video views.

In our video, Mr. Yakut points out free shuttle bus（班车）serves that he, and others in his position, can use to get around. He also shows viewers the best place he has found to wash and shave---a modern shopping centre bathroom---and how to make use of the items other Muscovites have abandoned in the city’s bins.

The popularity of the pair’s You Tube channel has impressed video-marketer Kirill Kalashnikov, who tells Moscow 360 that with some professional help, “this could be turned into a million subscribers within a year”. In the meantime, Mr. Yakut says supporters can make donations through a Moscow drain pipe, where he hides his dollars in a deposit box made from a soft-drink bottle.

Low-Cost Gifts for Motherˈs Day

The summer holidays are coming up. Itˈs time to fill the bookshelves with quality literature for the kids. Here are some great books.

Josephine Wants to Dance by Jackie French

Price: A$14.99 (for ages 4+)

    Josephine is a kangaroo who loves to dance. Her little brother, Joey, tells her that kangaroos donˈt dance; they jump. But Josephine continues to point her toes and leap through the air. When a ballet group comes to town and the lead ballerina (芭蕾舞演员) is injured, Josephine is called upon to help save the day. Can she do it, and, more importantly, does it matter that sheˈs a kangaroo?

House of Secrets by Chris Columbus

Price: A$19.99 (for ages 9+)

    The Walker kids —Caroline, Brendan and Nell—may have saved the world, but they canˈ t save their home and must leave Kristoff House. Things canˈt get any worse, but then it turns out that the Wind Witch is still alive and planning an attack. To defeat her. the Walkers must return to the book world. The Walkers always help each other, but they must do it alone in their most important mission yet. And this time, if they fail, thereˈs no chance of coming back.

Edge of Extinction Book 1 by Laura Martin

Price: AS 16.00 (for ages 9+)

   If you like The Land of the Dinosaurs. You will love this book. Two hundred years ago, the first dinosaur was successfully cloned (克隆). Soon after, humans realized theyˈd made a big mistake. Thirteen-year-old Sky Mundyˈs father suddenly disappeared five years ago. Along with her best friend，Shawn，she steps out into the world --a world of dinosaurs --to look for him. Then she learns that everything sheˈs been taught has been a lie.

Washington， D．C． Bicycle Tours

Cherry Blossom Bike Tour in Washington，D．C．

    Duration：3 hours

    This small group bike tour is a fantastic way to see the world﹣famous cherry trees with beautiful flowers of Washington， D．C． Your guide will provide a history lesson about the trees and the famous monuments where they blossom． Reserve your spot before availability ﹣ and the cherry blossoms ﹣ disappear!

Washington Capital Monuments Bicycle Tour

    Duration： 3 hours （4 miles）

    Join a guided bike tour and view some of the most popular monuments in Washington， D．C． Explore the monuments and memorials on the National Mall as your guide shares unique facts and history at each stop． Guided tour includes bike， helmet，cookies and bottled water．

Capital City Bike Tour in Washington，D．C．

    Duration： 3 hours

    Morning or Afternoon， this bike tour is the perfect tour for D．C． newcomers and locals looking to experience Washington， D．C． in a healthy way with minimum effort． Knowledgeable guides will entertain you with the most interesting stories about Presidents，Congress， memorials， and parks． Comfortable bikes and a smooth tour route（路线） make cycling between the sites fun and relaxing．

WashingtonCapital Sites at Night Bicycle Tour

    Duration： 3 hours （7 miles）

    Join a small group bike tour for an evening of exploration in the heart of Washington， D C． Get up close to the monuments and memorials as you bike the sites of Capitol Hill and the National Mall． Frequent stops are made for photo taking as your guide offers unique facts and history． Tour includes bike， helmet， and bottled water． All riders are equipped with reflective vests and safety lights．