27 Sept., Saturday: Blists Hill and Ironbridge

As promised, here is a picture of Tilly (left) and Ted (right), staring over the patio wall in Peter and Margaret's back garden (thanks for the picture, Peter!).

We had a very busy day today. Drove to the museum dedicated to the birth of the Industrial Revolution, called Blists Hill. Very compelling wall-high and fully surrounding video exhibits when you walk in that gives you an up close view of mining coal, smelting the iron, etc. Then you walk out into a recreation of a Victorian town that was absolutely brilliant. Here is a picture of Hal with Peter and Margaret as we were just starting out.

There were volunteers everywhere, in costume, like this man making a rag rug,

 this woman in the "squatter's cottage"--which was about 300 years old-- who is crocheting/ knitting,

and maybe, best of all, the school master who was striding through the town chastising wayward visitors. He said to Hal in a stern voice, "Take your hands out of your pockets young man and stand up straight." Hal said his mom used to say the same thing :-)

They had amazingly fitted out shops like the pharmacy,

the bakery, etc. Here is a woman taking bread from the oven;

the "carpenter, wheelright, and undertaker" was giving a brief tutorial on the fine points of grave robbing.

The draper's shop advertised Singer sewing machines and had all kinds of fancy hats.

There were so many entertaining signs, I just had to take pictures.

Hal made friends with a huge horse pulling a large cart through the streets of town.

Of course the town grew up around the coal mines and the furnaces.

We watched the wheel pull up the cage going down into the mine shaft.

There was a functioning steam engine.

Overall, it was really well done.
Afterwards we drove to a tile museum--so many pretty things I wanted to buy! Then wandered up the road to a crafts mart where, among other things, women were making lace--which looks unbelievably complicated with so many bobbins, but Margaret gave it a try.

Then off to the first cast iron bridge, in the town of Ironbridge, which was built in 1779 over the River Severn, the longest river in Britain.

We were joined by Petere and Margaret's friends Anne and Dave for dinner at a wonderful Thai restaurant in Stone. By the time we got to bed about midnight, we were pooped!

Friday, 26 Sept.: On to Stone

We packed up, tidied up, and left Ambleside about noon to travel south for our stay with Peter and Margaret Sage in Stone. Don't let me leave out their dog Tilly--a really cute Norfolk Terrier--and visiting friend, Ted, a Border Terrier. We went for a nice long walk along the canal

and got to see a small group of nearly grown cignet swans

and lots of "narrow boats!"

Walked into Stone and had a drink at the pub, then got to watch someone opening the lock to get their boat through.

It was an absolutely beautiful sunny and mild evening after our rainy day in the Lakes yesterday. Got a shot of Hal and Margaret deep in conversation,

and I think Peter was calling the dogs in this one.

I will get some better pictures of friends and pups in days to come. Margaret is cooking up lasagna for dinner and I can hardly wait :-)

Thurs., 25 Sept.: Dove Cottage and Tarn Hows

As you will see from the photos, it was a gray and soggy day with occasional tiny little peeks at the sun, but nevertheless misting or raining the whole time. I dragged Hal off to see one of the houses where Wordsworth lived, Dove Cottage.

As seems to be the custom, you cannot take pictures inside, so photos are of the gardens and exterior.  He and his sister, Dorothy, rented the former pub in Town End (just outside Grasmere village) in 1799 ( for 8 pounds a year) and lived there almost 9 years. The building is almost 300 years old and he loved it because of the unobstructed views of Grasmere lake and the fells; other buildings have since blocked that view except from the very top of the back garden.

Experts say he wrote some of his best poems while living there. A few years after moving in, he married; he and Mary had 3 children there, even though there were only 3 bedrooms plus a tiny little add on space for the children. Given that they often had house guests who stayed for weeks and that Mary Wordsworth was expecting a 4th child, they finally moved and eventually settled at Rydal Mount (which we did not visit) just up the road toward Ambleside. He loved to ice skate on Esthwaite nearby. He composed his poems while walking, using the rhythm of his footsteps to maintain meter; then he would return home and dictate this first draft to either Mary or Dorothy, who wrote them all down. How do I know all this? A bit of reading and a very nice guide at Dove Cottage named Trent, who is from Washington state and completing a master's degree at BYU on the Romantic poets. He is doing is capstone project working at Dove Cottage and the adjacent Wordsworth museum. It is truly amazing how much of the original furniture has been preserved, as well as voluminous journals, correspondence and manuscripts.
Then we wandered into the village of Grasmere, bought some of the "world famous" gingerbread,

continued our search for a shirt and hat for Hal,  and had a really nice pot of tea, accompanied by a raspberry-blueberry scone with clotted cream and jam -- oh sigh.
Hal was feeling a little better today, so we decided to drive to Tarn Hows and walk around the lakes. The GPS took us 10 miles north before we realized there was no way we were going to get there that way and just drove back to Ambleside to reconnoiter. I looked up driving directions on the computer and, after having a sandwich,  we headed south, ending up on the tiniest roads yet. "Single track with passing spots" was how they were described. Ha!
But Tarn Hows was indeed very lovely

and we had a nice walk on a gravel path the entire way around. Many of the trees were planted by the man who combined three small swampy lakes into one larger one, and this oak tree had spreading branches that had to have been 25-30 feet long.

Having seen this phenomenon a couple times on previous walks, I was again struck by several tree stumps or downed trees with many coins pounded into them. I have no idea what the significance is -- can anyone shed light on this mystery??

As we came back to the car park, we again encountered a couple who were walking their Akitas; they proceeded to buy two ice cream cones and feed them to the dogs!

The Brits are obviously even nuttier about their dogs than we are. There were several informative signs in the little information center

and, lo and behold, I learned about the unusual black sheep with white faces I have seen so many of since coming to the Lake District.

We drove through Coniston, saw no reason to stop or linger, and came back to the apartment to try and use up food in the refrigerator for our last dinner here.

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.