Weds, 24 Sept.: Over Honister Pass

We decided to do a scenic drive today that was recommended in one of our books on the Lake District. We would drive to Keswick and then follow this loop:

More about why that did not happen in a moment.
We did drive to Keswick, filled the car with diesel and headed south along the eastern shore of Derwent Water, through the Borrowdale Valley. We stopped to see the Bowder Stone and along the footpath, met a man whose parents live in Gig Harbor, WA of all places! He has lived in England for quite a while and just finished doing a PhD on Viking art and relics in Cumbria. He is collaborating with the National Trust to set up a show of sorts. The Bowder Stone is estimated to weigh 1,870 tons and was thought to have been left behind by the retreat of the glaciers that carved this valley. Here is Hal at the bottom and a couple pictures I took from the top.

We drove on to the Honister Slate Mine; there has been slate mining here since the Roman occupation and at one time it was a huge production.

It nearly collapsed financially, was rescued in the mid 1960's and is now operated by one family. Picture is of the small engine that hauled big chunks of slate out of the mine.

I liked this triangular window in one of the walls,

and here are crates of slate roofing tiles ready for shipment.

This is the surrounding area of the quarry/mine--bleak but beautiful in its own way.

This was taken coming down Honister Pass--that is the behemoth Volvo station wagon in the background.

On to Buttermere, where we had lunch at the Fish Inn.

I have grown very fond of cheese and pickle (chutney) for lunch. OK, so once again we programmed the GPS for the next major town, and it took us a while to figure out why we were driving along this incredibly narrow, poorly paved single track sheep trail and not finding any of the towns on our "scenic drive." Well, the navigation system took us on a short cut, 2nd only to the one we took ourselves on when driving the Isle of Mull in Scotland--fortunately the drops to the side of the road were not so high, and we did not meet any buses coming the other way. We did see lots of sheep, a water fall, and nice country,

but missed driving along Crummock Water and the towns of Low and High Lorton, as well as the Whinlatter Pass. At Braithwaite, I turned back west to at least go see the visitor center in the Whinlatter Forest. This view was taken facing Bassenthwaite lake as were partway up Whinlatter Pass.

Our final surprise of the drive was when all the traffic on the "A" road was stopped to allow this flock of sheep to move along to another field.

Now back to wrestling with the dryer from hell which just keeps running but does not seem to be drying the clothes.

23 Sept., Tues: Hill Top Farm

It was a rainy day today, so not many pictures. We drove to Beatrix Potter's beloved Hill Top Farm in Near Sawrey first thing this morning. We found it with no trouble and so were there well before the ticket office was open and wandered down a footpath toward Far Sawrey. Beautiful pastoral scene on a soggy morning.

This is the only picture I took of the actual house that she bought with the proceeds of her first book (you were not allowed to take pictures inside).

One thing I found remarkable is that the sides of the small porch are single sheets of slate, as are the two pieces of the little roof. It was built in the mid-1600's and she bought it in 1905 and added on a bit in 1906. She only stayed there on weekends before she was married, as it just wasn't done for single young women to come and live someplace by themselves. After she married and moved into a large house across the road, she used this house as her office and work space. Per her will, it has been kept as it was--to look as if she had just stepped out for a short walk and missed her guests. All her collections of furniture, china, bits and pieces from the natural world were still there as were examples of her letters with the lovely pen and ink drawings she often included. This picture of the small vegetable garden out front looks a lot like those drawn in some of her books.

I couldn't resist taking a picture of the flowers in front of this Near Sawrey guest house.

We drove back to Hawkshead and did a bit of shopping and had a cup of tea while it poured rain. The drive between Ambleside and  Near Sawrey / Hawkshead was nerve racking as the roads are very narrow and edged with stone walls, leaving no room for error.
We drove to Windermere and had a light lunch, did some grocery shopping and returned to the apartment. Went around Ambleside checking out the numerous outdoor clothing shops (must have been 8 or 9), looking for a replacement for Hal's white hiking shirt, with no success. Stopped by the Bridge House, ostensibly the "smallest house in England,"

which is built over the Stock Ghyll (stream) that runs through town. This is the lower floor (1 room with a stove)

and the upper floor,

and a view out the upper floor window.

Hal is taking a nap and we will just stay in and watch a video tonight. Better weather is promised for tomorrow.

22 Sept., Monday: Keswick and Derwent Water

Shouldn't really take 2 hours to go 15 or 20 miles, but then, you have to account for detours, being lost several times, etc. So we left about 8:45 this morning and our first short stop was at Thirlmere-- not a natural lake, but a reservoir that supplies over 10% of the drinking water in the northwest UK, according to the information sign.

We did an accidental detour through Grasmere which we will come back to explore at greater leisure, probably tomorrow. On to Keswick (pronounced Kehzick) where we got thoroughly lost twice, but eventually found our way to the jetty for the Derwent Launch.

Lots of pretty spots along the shore.

  Went for a short ride to Hawes End, which is the disembarkation point for most folks wanting to walk the Catbells, a ridge of hills going up nearly 1,500 feet.

Supposedly named for wild cats which lived there in the past. Hal was not able to do a hike to the summit but some intrepid souls did--you can see them here along the ridge line.

We took the "terrace path" which advertised "great views without the scrambles." We walked through beautiful old woods going up and down, but once above the treeline, did indeed have gorgeous views of the lake.

Hal's favorite part of the hike is, of course, stopping for lunch while we waited for the launch to come pick up up at the High/Low Brandelhow jetty.

Across the lake you could see the Lodore Hotel, (lower left corner of photo) but the water level was too low for the boat to make it's usual stop there.

I liked the shadows of clouds on the hillsides,

and this sweet little spot someone had chosen to place a bench for resting and watching the water.

There are also these interesting/amusing facts about the history of Derwent Water's islands.

As you can see, it was a mostly cloudy day. Sun came out just about the time we got back.
We also took a detour off the "A" roads onto a "B" road to Threlkeld, which used to be a huge mining area and still has a mining museum.

Given Hal's state of tiredness, and that the museum and tours were not inexpensive, we did not stay. Along our "B" road we saw what I first thought, at a distance, were small black cattle with white faces, but in fact, they turned out to be sheep. I have seen white sheep, black sheep, white sheep with black faces, but these were the first black sheep with white faces!

The maintenance guy has been here since I made another visit to the office with a handwritten list of things that do not work, and he has been banging around--literally with a hammer in the bathroom-- but Hal slumbers on. One of the items on the list got fixed; the others require real plumbers, electricians,  etc. Ah well.

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.

20 Sept., Saturday: Off to the Lake District

Oh so hard to leave our friends, but they have made a tentative promise to come visit us in the States next spring, so I will focus on that instead of saying goodbye.

Up the road to Stone--it rained the entire way--to see new friends, Peter and Margaret Sage and their sweet little dog, Tilly (see pictures of all posted here). They treated us to lunch at the nearby pub, The Three Crowns, and then we drove on to Ambleside. After coping with driving on the "other" side of the road all day, I am beat, but we checked into our apartment and walked down the hill into town to get a few groceries.

Here are a couple of pictures taken from our balcony near sunset. I will try to get some better ones in the morning. The view is the best things about the apartment, but we cooked for ourselves (Tesco's frozen shepard's pie) for the first time in almost 3 weeks!

19 Sept., Friday: Our last day in Chastleton

It was a somewhat quieter day which started with a trip to the garden center in Moreton, ostensibly for coffee. Coffee at the garden center? you might well ask, but garden centers here are a whole different species than back in the states. Our garden centers or nurseries might have a few gift items with plant or flower themes, but that cannot begin to touch the array of gift items available here. There was a restaurant, they sold clothes, food stuffs, hundred of cards for all occasions, gift items galore--and, oh yes, plants and flowers! We spent the rest of the morning/early afternoon looking at maps with Brian who grew up in the Lake District and had some wonderful suggestions for things to do. Since we cannot begin to see it all, it helped to have personal recommendations.
Friday night we drove to this amazing old church in Burton Dassett (about 45 minutes away) out in the country now, though in medieval times it was a thriving village. It dates back to the 1300's and there are some remaining fragments of paintings on the walls from that period as well. Apparently the village failed for two reasons: a ruthless new landlord who threw many farmers off the land, and the plague of 1348. The choir of which Di is a member, did acapella performances of old English ballads and more contemporary songs as can be seen from the program. Interspersed were wonderful and often hilariously funny readings by two women on the vicissitudes of love.