21 Sept., Sunday: Ambleside

I got some early morning shots of sunrise over the fells and the town of Ambleside from our balcony.

Partly because we spent much of yesterday in the car, and partly because the weekend traffic was still pretty dense, we decided to make it a local walking day. As Brian would say, we mooched around Ambleside this morning--now having checked out the two grocery stores in town and most of the hiking/outdoor clothing shops (of which there are MANY). We also wandered over to St. Mary's church, which is the spire we can see from our balcony.

Returned to the apt. and went to the office  to report a few problems, like no heater in the bathroom, a non-functioning sink stopper, etc. While waiting for the office to open, a sweet little black kitty accosted us and was not shy about asking for attention and petting, so we got a bit of kitty loving.

We walked up the hill along Stock Ghyll (ghyll being the local parlance for stream, as I understand it) to Stock Force (force being the term for waterfall) which drops about 60 feet.

We continued past the force a little way up Tarn Fell (mountain) enough to get some vistas over Ambleside and the other side of the valley, and then gradually headed back to town.

Along the way we encountered this rather unusual stile made of slate stones incorporated into the stone wall,

and this absolutely enormous tree--based on the leaves, I think it was some kind of maple.

Stopped for lunch on our way back to the apt--had some very good tomato soup and decent dark beer. Re-organized and refueled, we then headed south to Waterhead, the north end of Lake Windermere.

We also wandered around the ruins of a Roman fort in the adjacent pasture, dating from the 2nd century!

We found an empty bench to sit on while watching people, dogs, ducks, geese, swans and boats come and go. Here is a picture of the ferry that takes people around the lake.

The most noteworthy thing that happened was watching a woman walk by with three soft serve ice cream cones, who sat down beside her husband and gave him one, then fed one to their dog--and I thought our cats were spoiled!
Eventually we headed back, stopped to pick up a few more groceries, watched an episode of Midsomer Murders on TV, cleaned ourselves up and fixed dinner.
The plan is to be off early tomorrow for a boat ride on Derwent Water, and a hike on the Catbells.