In Which the E of D, LM, and LP Leave the Cliffes of Insanity and Visit the Lande of Lakes

The weather was a bit hit and miss, on the shores of Ullster, but we brave travellers soldiered on! Come rain, come shine, we would not be defeated!

Or something.

We boarded the nearest boat for our High Seas Adventure. Sword fights! Hurricanes! Pirates!

Not really. It was a very calm and sedate and rather chilly. When they say to bring a warm coat, they aren't kidding.
Over hill, over dale, we hit the dusty trail. Over landscape that looked suspiciously like Eastern Oregon. With sheep.
We eventually found landscape that looked a lot like Western Oregon. With rock walls. And sheep.
And cute little cafes where we partook of local gastronomic delights.
And we had to snap a picture of this just for Mendy: Charlotte Mason's Ambleside.
We passed through the tiny village of Grasmere were in lies the. Best. Gingerbread. Ever.
Also Wordsworth's grave. Which was cool as I'm a bibliophile. But honestly? I was more interested in the gingerbread. Sue me.

We stayed at a B & B which also happened to be... You guessed it! A working farm. This one with... sheep!

But aren't the baby baas cute?!
We took a wander around the farm (Thank goodness I took my mucky shoes.) and froze off our hind sides.


Here's the actual house where we stayed. Our hostess was very nice and made us homemade bread for breakfast every morning and home made cakes for tea every afternoon. Know THAT is my type of camping!
No trip to the Lake District would be complete without a trip to Hilltop, the home of Beatrix Potter. Though she never actually lived there, she loved the place dearly and used it both as a writer's retreat and as inspiration for her books. Several of the drawings in her books are exact copies of places in the house, such as the stair landing, and garden.

And, being of the fine aristocratic stock we are, we had to visit the local castle.
And no castle grounds would be complete without... more sheep.

Brougham Castle, even in ruins, is terribly majestic and picturesque.


The Lady Marylee tromped about the castle ruins most gleefully.




Next stop was the nearby Brougham Manor.

Which had a very snazzy doorknocker.

We tromped through the wilderness amongst funny looking trees...
... and logs with coins.
We sought out waterfalls...
... and got close to nature. Very big nature.

We got so close to nature...
... it nearly stuck it's head in the car window. (Yes! That is a wild pony!)
One last glance at the cute village that had been our home for three days...
... and we were off to visit the Romans!