Lake District

We left Dundee and headed for Edinburgh - not to sightsee but to meet Michelle for lunch.  A bit hectic finding a park but a nice stroll through the grounds of the castle helped to soothe the rattled nerves before meeting up.  We then drove to the Lake District - our first trip to this area - and one which met our expectations - surprising since they were quite high - so many English have told us this was the best scenery in England.  I think they are right if you like walking, lakes, mountains etc.  Besides all that out doory stuff one of my key reasons for going was to see a bit of Beatrix Potter history and Harry was equally keen to see Coniston Waters.

We did some roaming around the Beatrix Potter countryside first before visiting Hawkshead, the town where her solicitor husband William Heelis worked and where the museum is today displaying all her original drawings of Peter Rabbit and his animal friends.  It was one of those places I would like to go back for a weekend, the sun was shining, bands were playing, Peter Rabbit and Jemima were standing in shop doorways and windows, people were sitting in the sun eating, drinking and chatting.  We then drove to Hilltop the little village where Beatrix lived and was inspired to write all about Peter Rabbit, Tom Kitten, Samuel Whiskers and Jemima Puddleduck - at this point I only can recall Peters story so we bought a set of little books to entertain ourselves one long wintry night in Bristol.  If you've seen the film you can probably skip some of the history... Beatrix was born into a privileged household, she had a few governesses and because of this she spent more time with animals and walking the countryside rather than with other kids.  She didn't get much support to write but where there is a will there is a way and as a fairly bright young girl with a bit of initiative she did without her parents help.  As the film shows she became renowned for her writing, water colours and farming.  The movie finished when Norman Warner her publisher and fiance died but it seems that only half the story was told and I still wonder why it finished there rather than a few years later.  After his death she bought Hill Top Farm and it was to the cottage we wandered, up through the village - past the little white gate, the post office, the hotel and into the cottage garden of Hill Top Farm.  Here grew old-fashioned flowers such as honeysuckle, foxgloves, lupins, peonies, roses and lavender grew (plus a few I couldn't name) and this was the garden where Peter ate his lunch strawberries, raspberries, currants, gooseberries and rhubarb - there may have been some carrots but I didn't see them.  Anyway, her story writing brought in the dough and she kept buying up the properties around Hilltop with the aim of preserving the Lake District environment.  As a farmer she bred the local and rare Herdwick sheep) and preserve the countryside from development.  She left the whole lot to the National Trust on her death which is great for all those adults who grew up with the stories.

http://www.literarytraveler.com/authors/beatrix_potter.aspx

And then onto Coniston Waters where Harry wandered around the museum for a while and after a short walk around the town I joined him.  The lake is the third largest lake in the district, but it felt quite small really as we sat on the shores eating our afternoon tea and wishing we had a few more days to explore.  It was one of those warm, peaceful moments beside still waters, when families play together, others cook a barbeque or play ball and the world feels good.  Coniston Waters is better known for the attempts at breaking the world water speed record rather than the weather.  In 1939 Sir Malcolm Campbell set the record and around the time Harry and I were born his son Donald Campbell set four successive records on the lake in Bluebird K7, a hydroplane.  In 1966 Donald Campbell tried to exceed 300 miles per hour and on the day I would turn 10 he achieved a top speed of over 320 miles per hour.  However, that wasn't really a very clever thing to do as he lost control of the Bluebird which crashed and the boat and Donald sunk and were not retrieved from their watery grave until 2001. The attempt could not be counted as a record-breaking run because the second leg was not completed.

On returning back to Bristol we finally got rid of Vista from our laptop.  It means the computer goes a lot faster - no more 30 minute waits to log onto the internet or to download some photos.  Harry had carefully saved all the photos on the flashdrive but we couldn't find the Lake District ones.  But we have 2 flashdrives - thank goodness - otherwise the trip would have been in our memories which is fine for us but not so much for anyone who likes looking at our photos.