Skyped Nan and Pa last night and then went to sleep!!
This morning Brendon and I had a bit of a lie in and Mum and Dad walked to a waterfall. Then we all had brekky and got ready for our day.
We drove through the countryside and our way ran into a herd of sheep running down the street - was hilarious! Our first stop was Near Sawrey (there's a Far Sawrey too - place names here are so funny!). Here we went to Beatrix Potter's House! You should all know who Beatrix Potter is but just in case: she's a famous author/illustrator who wrote beautiful children's stories during her life. She moved to the Lake District and loved it here and based most of her stories in the area. After initial success she purchased a farmhouse in Near Sawrey with her earnings and then continued to write stories there about characters such as Peter rabbit, Jemima puddleduck etc. We checked out the pretty garden and farmhouse that she lived in and then later used as a studio when she was married. It was all furnished and left as it would have been when she was here (she died in 1943). Lots of lovely knick knacks and I particularly enjoyed the books open to certain pages in certain rooms so you could she how she based her illustrations on her surroundings. A man gave us a talk in there too and we saw lots of objects used in her books such as the dollhouse furniture in the book about the mice. It was interesting!! Took me back to my childhood (which in the scheme of things wasn't very long ago!!!!).
We then went and had cream tea in the tea house nearby. Brendon got confused when I asked if he wanted tea or coffee as he thought it was some kind of tea with cream in it, but it's a scone with cream and - in this case - strawberries. It was amazing, and the weather sure put a show on for us today. It's been sunny and stunning all day and we had a beautiful view for our cream tea.
Then we went driving again and ended up back in Glenridding where our walk started yesterday. Here we caught a steamer on Ullswater, the lake there. We weren't off to a great start though. The four of us got on the boat and took a seat, and the seat collapsed! We all fell to the ground. Mum and dad have small cuts and Brendon and I have stiff backs, but luckily we were mostly ok. The wood was rotten so broke away, but it could've been a lot worse!!! They kept asking us if we were ok the whole trip. Lucky we aren't American or else they would've worried we would sue I guess haha. The guy filled out an incident report and wrote down that it was as dad sat down. We all had a good laugh about that. I kept saying that I know I've gained weight this year but didn't realise that much ;)
After that we enjoyed the 2.5 hour boat ride around the lake. It made various stops but we just stayed on. Spent the first half in the shade and second half in the sun. Was relaxing and nice (apart from the start - hope my back stops hurting soon!).
Tonight we are having fish and chips for dinner and mentally preparing ourselves for what is apparently an even harder and longer walk than yesterday. My knees are protesting already!!! But what's life without a challenge hey? Big motto of this year. All will be fine...15 people a year do die doing this one though because it has parts you rock climb, but apparently that's when it's snowy. Lucky we are fit and have practice!
Love to all
Claire
Xoxox
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