Loves from ‘The Lake District’

Staying on the shore of Lake Windermere, at the YHA Ambleside, we spent three nights, and a few wonderful days, soaking up the beautiful scenery.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA — Alice and Mummy approaching Ambleside and the YHA

We enjoyed hiking the countryside, taking a boat across the lake and visiting Beatrix Potter‘s 17th-century farmhouse ‘Hill Top.

Stunning scenery on our walk up to Beatrix Potter's Hill Top home from Wrey Castle. — Stunning scenery on our walk up to Beatrix Potter’s Hill Top home from Wray Castle.

Our hike took us about 6 miles, from Wray Castle to Hill Top, with beautiful tarns reflecting the surrounding countryside and colours of the sky.

We caught a short boat ride to the start of our walk, crossing from Ambleside to the Wray Castle Jetty, as part of a ‘Walkers Ticket with Windermere Lake Cruises‘. We were by the Captain of our fine vessel to watch carefully for otters, by looking for trails of bubbles, but we weren’t in luck – never mind, we had fun looking!

The traditional wooden launch we took to Wray Castle Jetty — The traditional wooden launch, ‘Princess of the Lake’, which we took to Wray Castle Jetty

We started our walk alongside Lake Windermere, spending about half an hour following the pathway, before turning away from the lake and climbing up, through forest and farmland.

Starting our walk from Wray Castle Jetty.

Alice enjoyed placing a ‘lucky stone’ on the top of a cairn, after quite a long climb.

Alice placing a lucky stone on top of the cairn.

On our walk up we were very fortunate to stumble across a small family of deer! A rustle in the bushes alerted us to the presence of something – and we knew by the sound that it was something larger than a bird or rodent… after a moment of silence we spotted a deer, and a second, and…. a third! We didn’t have a super zoom lensed camera to capture what our eyes could see, so just stopped and enjoyed the moment, feeling very grateful.

After our climb we ambled down toward Hill Top, Beatrix Potter’s farm-house, crossing beautiful landscapes and tarns.

Beatrix Potter’s home was such a treasure to visit – like a time-capsule of her life and work.

iirk0 — Within Beatrix Potter’s home were quotes from her books, letters and journals.

djwlw — Her garden was so similar to that which is drawn and described in ‘The Tale of Peter Rabbit’.

In the village that she had lived we enjoyed a pub lunch, whilst reading one of her books, and being entertained by a very friendly robin!

We were also in admiration of the vegetables on display outside – it seemed a local ‘Harvest Festival’ tradition to display vegetables in a creative display!

On another day we played mini-golf, went on a ‘Swallows and Amazons’ themed trail and jumping around in ‘Treetop Nets‘ at Brockhole.

On the trail! — On the trail with Grandma and Grandad at Brockhole!

Alice enjoyed the tree top nets immensely (as did I – so much so that I completely forgot to take a photograph!). We also loved the visitor centre at Brockhole, with so much information and activities (including an indoor climbing wall and soft play space for younger children!).

I only wish we had longer to linger in the Lake District as I think Alice would have been very much at home.