some photos from away

Day 1: We started the journey like last time, train ride from London to Oxenholme Lake District, second train to Windermere, then with a bike ride from Windermere to the cottage, about 8 miles, which wouldn't be so bad if they didn't put lots of hills in between :)

we stopped in Ambleside to sit by the lake for a bit before continuing on to the cottage and the hilly part of the ride

Day 2: after a good night's sleep we dragged ourselves out of bed on a rainy morning to start a walk. We began by staying in the valley near the cottage (mistyness=rainyness)

But then we decided to go farther afield, and we saw a lake on the map called Stickle Tarn, so we decided to head for this. One wet hike up a steep mountainside later :) and we came to this...

A beautiful, peaceful lake where we could stop to have some well-earned lunch.

We decided that instead of heading back down the way we came up, we might as well continue along the tops of the mountains until we get to our village and then work our way down from there. I really like the tops of the mountains up there.

Ste spotted this dragonfly so we stopped to photo it.

Our first sighting of where we need to be. The tops of the mountains are very barren, with only some random scrubs, ferns, or knarled trees, and lots of sheep. To entertain us on our walk we made up random poems about sheep and told stories to each other (Ste's was an account of an old fisherman to a young boy about the Loch Ness monster, and mine was about a princess who was trapped in a secret clearing on a mountaintop).

The sun began to disappear so we attempted to half successfully find our way down. Successful in that we got down, unsuccessful in that we ended up on about 5 different 'paths' (possibly just sheep paths) and scaling down rocks at one point. But 6.5 hours later we had some well earned kip.

Day 3: Ste's Mum came up to visit us and we drove over to Coniston and went on a walk a bit up Coniston Old Man. There was a copper mine nearby which you can kind of see.

We found this little cottage, which I will still pretend is called 'Bend or Bump', though others think otherwise...

Ste and his Mum

We also went down by the lake in Coniston, and there were lots and lots of female ducks, two swans, a signet, and a tiny baby duck

I thought this baby was small and then I spotted....

this teeny tiny fellow! This mother was very protective (rightly so!) and herded all other ducks away from her baby if they got too close.

Later we retired back to the cottage for some tea and cake :)

Day 4: We slept in a bit and then biked into Ambleside to check out boat time tables and then parked our bikes to go for a walk in the hills behind the village.

And we spotted a wee bunny! (can you see him?)

Looking back into Ambleside.

A pretty mountain stream

We biked back to the cottage after our walk (2 hours) and had well-earned food. We cooked every day while up there. There is a pub in the village where we had some good beers, but it just serves typical pub food so we stuck to making our own. I am slightly ashamed to say we got through about a dozen potatoes, a block of butter, a bag of pasta, 4 chunks of local cheese, a dozen eggs, and of course lots of veggies during our stay :)

Day 5: I convinced Ste it would be a good idea to go up and over the mountain behind the cottage to Grasmere, the next village over, separated by the mountain.

We did stop in the church near the cottage before going on the walk as Ste noticed they would be selling cakes, so we bought some homemade flapjack and a chocolate peppermint slice and a puzzle to play later, then started on our walk.

This photo was to remind us how to get back down on the easy path instead of having to scramble like we usually do...

Once in Grasmere we walked around the lake and decided to explore the village. Ste contemplated that Wordsworth might be buried here, so after going a bit further, seeing there was a museum dedicated to Wordsworth in Grasmere, and yes, his grave was here, we went back to the cemetary and found his grave. We also sat on the bench nearby and had a sandwich.

We then continued on to Dove Cottage, where Wordsworth spent 8 years, first as a bachelor living with his sister, then as a married man, and then with his three children and random family relations and friends! (like Coleridge)

There was also a good museum there with lots of original paintings from British artists, and we went on a very informative tour around the house. Dove Cottage was the third house to become a museum in Britain, after Shakespeare's and Milton's!

When we were done we decided to continue around Lake Grasmere until we could go sit by it and we found a pleasant spot to do so, we had the rest of our lunch and I sketched a little picture of the view, and then we hiked back up and down the mountain without a hitch (I dubbed this walk 'The Ups and the Downs')

The next day we packed up, biked to Ambleside and got a boat up to Bowness and then biked from there to Windermere and then got the trains back to London and biked back home.

AND THEN, we got picked up to go camping for the weekend...........