Here are some more photos from my fortnight in the Lake District.
Ever since I was in Primary School, I have loved Beatrix Potter Stories. Whilst I was staying in Hawkshead, I caught a bus to Hill Top Farm, the property she bought with the profits from her Peter Rabbit stories. I also visited her husband, William Heelis' old office in Hawkshead which has been turned into a gallery displaying a number of her original watercolour paintings. Beatrix Potter created the garden at Hill Top herself, and a number of her later stories, The Tale of Tom Kitten and Samuel Whiskers included, are set in the house and around the garden.
Hill Top Farm
Looking at Hill Top Farm from the vegetable patch.
A number of stories and pictures were also set around the village of Near Surrey, where Hill Top Farm is situated. The above is a B&B, which is featured in pictures in The Tale of Tom Kitten.
The village of Near Surrey
While in Hawkshead I also visited Tarn Hows, a piece of land which was bought by Beatrix Potter, who sold it to The National Trust at cost price. Some people consider this the most beautiful area in the Lake District. I thought it was lovely, and looking back at my photos it is very beautiful, but I actually prefer the area around Keswick.
It rained whilst I was in Tarn Hows, and I visited this little café, Yew Tree Farm, for lunch. This café is also a working farm owned by The National Trust (it was another one of Beatrix Potter's properties). This is also where the scenes at Hill Top Farm were filmed for the film Miss Potter. If you can imagine the walls of the house painted grey, and the yard where the outdoor tables are placed turned into a vegetable garden, then you can see that it is actually a very good match for the real thing (which was deemed too fragile to be used for a film location). Whilst I was eating my lunch here, it actually started hailing outside! 
The current tenants at Yew Tree Farm breed Herdwick sheep and Belted Galloway cattle. My lunch was a poppy seed bap filled with Beltie Beef and seeded mustard! Tasted as good as it looks (I'd never seen a blue Belted Galloway before, which was why I took a picture of this one. All the ones I have ever seen have been black).
Whilst I was walking back to my hostel from Tarn Hows, I saw several rainbows.
Beautiful autumn leaves on a tree by the bus stop in Hawkshead.
On my last day in Hawkshead, I visited Grizedale Forest. Here, I did a 10 mile walk around the forest, along the way seeing numerous sculptures which are situated around the trails in the forest.
Grizedale Tarn, in Grizedale Forest.
A view from my walk in the forest.
My last 3 days in The Lake District were spent in Windermere. The first day was a washout. After setting off in the morning on a walk to Ambleside, I soon realised that the rain was a lot heavier than what I would have liked to be out in and headed back to the hostel, getting drenched on the way. Consequently, I spent the rest of that day inside reading a book. As the manager of the hostel said: "We have to get our lakes from somewhere."The next day, I walked into Windermere (the village) and up Orrest Head, which gave the above and below great views over Windermere (the lake and village), and even out to the Yorkshire Dales.
I bought a ticket for the boats, which allowed me to hop on and off at any pier on any route I wished for the day. I cruised south on the lake to Lakeside, then north up to Ambleside, and I also did a 40 minute cruise which took me on a circuit of the north side of the lake.
I also had time to have one of these in Ambleside!
This was the view from outside the dining room at my hostel in Windermere.I arrived back in London last night, and I'm off to Spain tomorrow morning! I will be in Madrid for 3 days before I start my "Moorish Spain" Intrepid tour! I'm very excited about the tour, and hope that the people in the group are as much fun as those that went on the tour in Italy.
Tonight I feel like it's the night before an exam which I've known about for months, but for which I'm underprepared- ie. I feel like I should have been swotting up on my Spanish phrases for the past few months, but so far I've learnt "Hola" and "gracias" (pronounced "grathius", like you've got a lisp). Oh well, it's a bit late now to do much about it. At least it's an open book exam!
I'm not sure when my next update will be. If I don't have time in Spain, then the next one will be sometime when I get back to the UK in 3 weeks.
Until then, all emails will be greatfully received!
Love,
Lis x.
