We left Scotland behind today, travelling south (obviously) towards the Lake District.
Our main “sight” for the day was the Cumberland Pencil Factory in Keswick. Home of Derwent Pencils! (We were in Keswick to replace the Victorinox swiss card that melted on a wood heater in Ireland.)
The museum tour was fun, we were each given a pencil (our ticket) and a quiz sheet to fill out with answers found in the museum.
Little Miss Competitive wanted to make sure we got the prize-a specific pencil made for the 40th anniversary of Derwent Artist pencils.
We got our prize. And may have done a little shopping of the discounted goods sold in the shop.
We continued to Ambleside to do some grocery shopping for our 4 nights here. Both Keswick and Ambleside were incredibly busy. There is a Ford car rally and the Windermere Marathon on this weekend, so maybe it’s crazier than usual?
We reached our gorgeous converted barn accommodation which by chance, completely unplanned, is 200m from the Beatrix Potter House which is the main thing we had planned to visit whilst we are here.
We’re looking forward to some quiet days ahead. We’ve been moving for several months now without much of a break!
This morning we were up relatively early, and saw a white owl (exact name unknown) flying around the field outside our accommodation. It was beautiful, but unfortunately no decent photos were obtained.
We popped out to try to get a better view and were greeted instead by a small herd of cows (literally) running across the field to us. They must have thought we had food!
As we’ve ensconced ourselves in the village of Near Sawrey we took the short walk up the road to the Beatrix Potter museum.
Before entering the building you walk through the gardens that are featured in some of her books. Along the way you had to find 6 buttons that Tom Kitten had lost from his jacket. We found 4.
Inside the museum you went from room to room, learning about her love of animals and passion for the outdoors in general. Each room had one of her books in it, those books depicted scenes that were in the room you were standing in.
Her books captivated us and our kids,ย as kids and hopefully still captivate today’s younger ones. It was a lovely museum. It was so cool to see that most of the drawings were based on the house and garden and they haven’t changed in 100 years!
Then we headed to Hawkshead for a Sunday roast, our 1st since leaving Australia in February.
We had the lazy afternoon that we promised ourselves.
Today we took a drive through the western Lake District to Ravenglass to take a steam train ride from Ravenglass to Dalegarth on Boot, on the Ravenglass – Eskdale Railway.
The carriages took us by surprise for the smallness of them, although they are very cute.
The railway is a minimum-guage railway that is 150 years old this year.
The trip distance is 7 miles and we were sat in our own little booth, right behind the engine so we could see all the mechanics.
Our engine was called Northern Rock.
On our arrival at Dalegarth for Boot we went into the ticket office, now shop and cafe, for a High Tea.
Sandwiches, cakes, scones, clotted cream and jam, washed down with Prosecco.
After that we walked to the Eskdale Mill, a mill that has been operating since the 1700s.
Our return engine was Whillan Beck.
It was a lovely relaxing day out in gorgeous weather
Michael Portillo rode this railway on Great British Railways S3E18 .
Our last day in the Lake District was, intentionally, a very lazy day, which coincided with a slightky drizzly day conduciveto staying cosy. A quick trip to the Beatrix Potter shop for birthday present shopping followed by a trip into Hawkshead for essentials like wine and toilet paper.
We did venture on foot to the local pub for a quick beer, but otherwise we spent our time napping, repacking bags with clean clothes, knitting, watching Jon Bellion Live at Forest Hills on YouTube and finishing the latest season of Race Across the World.
An Unplanned Year 
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