Peter Rabbit

13th May - Monday

Caravan park at Ambleside

Ambleside scenery 

Big and brave 

Pretty scene beside the river - even the ducks looked cold 

Not very brave 

Entrance to Hill Top Farm House 

Jemima Puddleduck's gate - check out the book illustrations 

Sawry farmland, opposite Hill Top Farm 

Looking towards Hawkshead 

Decisions, decisions 

More pretty trees 

 Some of the tourist vessels - the open sided one didn't have many passengers

On the shores of Lake Windermere while the photographer was being attacked

He didn't want a pat! 

Where have all the people gone? 

Our home away from home

It was a very brisk start to the day, although it wasn’t raining – yet! After the usual English breakfast (for one of us, anyway) and some wash basin laundry (the jeans were starting to stand up on their own!), we travelled along the side of Lake Windermere to Ambleside, before turning towards Hawkshead and Hill Top Farm. At Ambleside, we passed a caravan park, which was typical of the many caravan parks we have seen – grass and mud paddocks usually.


A short way along the narrow and windy road, we were actually able to pull off (something that is very, very rare) beside the river for a few quick photos. With the temperature sitting on 5 degrees, one of us donned a coat quickly (and regretted not adding the scarf) while the other tried to act tough – Cat very sensibly refused to leave the warmth of the car. This area along the river was just beautiful, with the fresh new growth on the trees and all the moss. We had been informed at breakfast that it rains more than 200 days a year in the Lake District and today was one of the 200. The rain very quickly turned to ice and heavy hail as we passed Hawkshead but fortunately had stopped by the time we arrived in the car park at Hill Top Farm.

Another queue to show our National Trust pass and receive our timed ticket to visit Beatrix Potter’s house. Needless to say, we had to wait half an hour which gave us time to visit the gift shop. There were so many people there, we were so thankful we didn’t visit on a weekend. However, only a certain number are allowed into the house at a time and we were not rushed. It was very interesting to wander the house, still with Beatrix’s furniture and many of her original drawings, notes and letters; we were able to see the different features of the house used in her illustrations. Of course, the exit from the property was through the gift shop.

The rain was still holding off as we parked at Hawkshead – apart from a huge fee, the car park ticket machine also required the car registration number, just in case we gave our ticket to someone else. This is the village where Beatrix met her husband, Mr Heelis, and there is now a gallery of Beatrix’s work in his lawyer’s office building. This was a really pretty village of white painted buildings and shops – either selling Peter Rabbit products or outdoor clothing and gear. Les wanted to look at some outdoor stuff, so we were wandering around a shop, checking prices, etc, when the owner decided it was lunch and without saying anything to us, just brought all his signs in and put up the closed sign. He didn’t even bother to thank us for leaving. Obviously missed having his morning coffee!

It is amazing how quickly time disappears, so back towards Windermere and we continued to Bowness and the shore of Lake Windermere. This is where most of the cruise trips leave from and there were lots of tour coaches and people just standing trying to keep warm. There were a large number of friendly swans here as well, one of which took a liking to Les as he was trying to take a photo of some very important people with the lake in the background. For some reason, there weren’t any people queued up to hire a row boat. As the sun was actually shining at this stage, we took the opportunity for a wander around the local touristy shops and galleries at Bowness – they do seem to be the same wherever we are, just the names change on the tea towels – before returning to our accommodation, which is in a lovely building constructed in the local manner using stone.

It’s raining again, and thank goodness for heated towel rails!!!