Despite the weather forecast saying it would be a wet day, it was bright and sunny to begin with, and the whole day ended up being much better than they had predicted, with only a few brief showers during the afternoon.
We drove to the South end of lake Windermere to the village of Lakeside. I had gathered that there was a shopping outlet village type thing there, but it turns out that i had that totally wrong, and all there is there is a marina for the Windermere boats. So our stay there was so brief that we didn't even get out of the car!
On our way there though, we had spotted a National Trust place that we hadn't been aware of called Fell Foot, which is a Victorian Country Park. It is basically an area of parkland with some landscaped garden areas, with paths down to the side of the lake. The old boat house has been turned into a cafe, and you can hire rowing boats there if you wish.
We just walked around most of the grounds, including the large "meadow" area, which was all very pleasant. The view across to some of the mountains and up the length of the lake were excellent.
We drove to the South end of lake Windermere to the village of Lakeside. I had gathered that there was a shopping outlet village type thing there, but it turns out that i had that totally wrong, and all there is there is a marina for the Windermere boats. So our stay there was so brief that we didn't even get out of the car!
On our way there though, we had spotted a National Trust place that we hadn't been aware of called Fell Foot, which is a Victorian Country Park. It is basically an area of parkland with some landscaped garden areas, with paths down to the side of the lake. The old boat house has been turned into a cafe, and you can hire rowing boats there if you wish.
We just walked around most of the grounds, including the large "meadow" area, which was all very pleasant. The view across to some of the mountains and up the length of the lake were excellent.
After spending a couple of hours walking around the park, and stopping for a quick cup of tea, we made our way a bit further up the lake to the town of Bowness on Windermere. This seems to be the "main" town along the lake, and certainly has more shops than any of the other towns locally.
As you would expect, it has more than its fair share of eating establishments, and it would have been rude not to have partaken of one of them, and as we knew that there was another branch of Byson's there, we sought that out and parked ourselves in their tea rooms.
Having found out the hard way yesterday that their afternoon teas are a bit too much to handle (we still have two of the cakes left from yesterday!), we opted for the ploughman's lunch, and it was quite nice, although the service was not up to the standard of the branch in Keswick.
We then had a good walk around the town, failed to find anything particularly exciting, but i did ask one of the ladies in the Beatrix Potter shop why Peter Rabbit always looks so angry. I had noticed that all of the cuddly toys of him being sold everywhere have him scowling and looking as though is saying "come on then, i'll have you!!" in the manor of a football hooligan, and i just don't think it is fitting for a children's character.
She wasn't able to give me a definite answer, and she did profess that she had never been asked this question before, but she did agree with me that he does have a certain look about him!
As you would expect, it has more than its fair share of eating establishments, and it would have been rude not to have partaken of one of them, and as we knew that there was another branch of Byson's there, we sought that out and parked ourselves in their tea rooms.
Having found out the hard way yesterday that their afternoon teas are a bit too much to handle (we still have two of the cakes left from yesterday!), we opted for the ploughman's lunch, and it was quite nice, although the service was not up to the standard of the branch in Keswick.
We then had a good walk around the town, failed to find anything particularly exciting, but i did ask one of the ladies in the Beatrix Potter shop why Peter Rabbit always looks so angry. I had noticed that all of the cuddly toys of him being sold everywhere have him scowling and looking as though is saying "come on then, i'll have you!!" in the manor of a football hooligan, and i just don't think it is fitting for a children's character.
She wasn't able to give me a definite answer, and she did profess that she had never been asked this question before, but she did agree with me that he does have a certain look about him!
I haven't got any photos of Bowness, hence the image here of the interesting trees from Fell Foot.
From Bowness we moved onto the town of Windermere to the Lakeland Plastics store, which is their flagship store and head office. It looks very impressive, but we were both rather surprised that it is no better stocked than most of their ordinary stores, just better laid out and with room to move between the displays.
Sally did manage to fill a basket with goodies from there that we needed for our kitchen back home.
By now, my back was aching again, and Sally's feet were beginning to hurt, so we headed back to the cottage for tea, and in my case a doze, in Sally's case some colouring.
From Bowness we moved onto the town of Windermere to the Lakeland Plastics store, which is their flagship store and head office. It looks very impressive, but we were both rather surprised that it is no better stocked than most of their ordinary stores, just better laid out and with room to move between the displays.
Sally did manage to fill a basket with goodies from there that we needed for our kitchen back home.
By now, my back was aching again, and Sally's feet were beginning to hurt, so we headed back to the cottage for tea, and in my case a doze, in Sally's case some colouring.
The flower is one that i photographed at Fell Foot.
Dinner tonight was fish fingers with baked beans and mashed potato, which went down a treat with both us us.
We had decided not to go for a walk this evening, which is just as well, as a few minutes ago it threw it down with rain, and it was so heavy that within a couple of minutes the road was VERY VERY wet.
This storm has now passed and the rain is nowhere nearly as heavy just now, but the sky is still very black, and i wonder if we are going to get the thunder storms that they had promised most of the country today......
Dinner tonight was fish fingers with baked beans and mashed potato, which went down a treat with both us us.
We had decided not to go for a walk this evening, which is just as well, as a few minutes ago it threw it down with rain, and it was so heavy that within a couple of minutes the road was VERY VERY wet.
This storm has now passed and the rain is nowhere nearly as heavy just now, but the sky is still very black, and i wonder if we are going to get the thunder storms that they had promised most of the country today......
We will finish today with an obligatory photo of the two of us i think...... :-)
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