28 Sept., Sunday: Outing to Trentham Garden

This property which originally belonged to the Duke of Sutherland, went derelict and was then rescued by a private development organization that has opened an extensive collection of shops, including an enormous "garden center" to generate support for the renovation of the Italian gardens. I wanted to buy these planters shaped like hedgehogs,

but settled for replacing one of my bone china tea cups at the Aynesley shop. The house is still not yet renovated, but the gardens are really nice.

There is a big lake with a gravel path all the way around.

There are wire sculptures of "fairies" to be found hiding in the woods

as well as other art, like this willow structured bird.

I particularly loved this statue of a fairy with the down from a dandelion blowing away. The quote underneath says, "Wishes Do Come True."

There was a statue of Perseus slaying Medusa, a replica of one by Cellini, at the end of the garden,

some beautiful dahlias and tons of still blooming begonias. Here is a "group photo" of Hal, Margaret, Peter, Tilly and Ted.

I got a picture of Margaret tidying the garden this morning.

It has been an unbelievably sunny, gorgeous day, today, so we are all sitting around on the patio this evening.

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.