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.

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.