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| View from country lane near YHA |
It was an easy drive to the Lake District and we arrived at Lake Windermere around 3 p.m. I cannot remember the last time I was at the Lakes but I do recall many happy memories with my family there when a young girl....camping under a make shift tent my Dad constructed with a rescued parachute from the battlefields of Arnhem in Holland during WW 11 thrown over an old wooden clothes horse. I remember my mother cooking Cumberland sausages over a primus stove with a summer dress on and paddling in Lake Windermere with my sister, Thelma. That was over 50 years ago and as I looked at the landscape again none of it looked familiar except for the eternal beauty of the lake and mountainous back drop.
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| Lake Windermere |
Amazingly the clouds parted as we arrived at the lake and the sun shone through. The foreshores of the lake were crowded with families having picnics and little kids were having a ball splashing around in the water. We didn't hang around too long as we had to find the YHA and had planned to go to Keswick that night to the annual convention that has been held there every year since John Wesley days.
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| Lake Windermere YHA |
However, we were not prepared for how difficult it was going to be to find the place. Two hours later after asking four different people we finally wound our way up the drive to the very stately large building of the YHA. I have to say some of these hostels are very grand and great value for money even if you have to share a dormitory which we did on this occasion.
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| Debbie on foot bridge over river |
We went for a short walk along the country lane and found ourselves down by a river and finally rested up on the other side of the valley and enjoyed the view from the other side. The sheep viewed us with great disdain.
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| View from terrace at hostel |
We decided to give Keswick a miss as we were too tired by now and instead enjoyed a lovely meal from the restaurant terrace (yes a restaurant at the hostel served with wine too) looking across the valley with Lake Windermere in the background. It was a satisfying way to end the day.
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| Garden view at rear of Dove Cottage |
Next morning we did a tour of Dove Cottage, William Wordsworth's home at Grassmere. A lady took us through all the rooms of the cottage which was jammed packed with us tourists. Being a local lady she spoke very fast and even I could barely understand her and Debbie even more so.
"Gardening's purpose is to assist Nature in moving the affections."
William Wordsworth - Ode:
Intimations of Immortality
"To me the meanest flower that blows can give
Thoughts that so often lie too deep for tears."
William Wordsworth
It was an easy drive to the Lake District and we arrived at Lake Windermere around 3 p.m. I cannot remember the last time I was at the Lakes but I do recall many happy memories with my family there when a young girl....camping under a make shift tent my Dad constructed with a rescued parachute from the battlefields of Arnhem in Holland during WW 11 thrown over an old wooden clothes horse. I remember my mother cooking Cumberland sausages over a primus stove with a summer dress on and paddling in Lake Windermere with my sister, Thelma. That was over 50 years ago and as I looked at the landscape again none of it looked familiar except for the eternal beauty of the lake and mountainous back drop.
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