Beatrix Potter's house, Ulswater, Aira Force

On this day, our last in the Lake District, we drove north to the ferry across Windermere, and then north and east along the west side of Ulswater.

As we walked to Hill Top Farm, Beatrix Potter's house, we passed this character sitting outside a pub.  He wears a sign that says, "No, I am not a Womble."

Hill Top is a house in Near Sawrey in Cumbria.  Beatrix Potter purchased and remodeled it with the proceeds the children's books that she wrote and illustrated, notably The Tale of Peter Rabbit.  Note the monogram and the 1906 date.  (HBP, for Helen Beatrix Potter)

The house has a nice garden, complete with lambs and extremely red tulips.

This is the view across the road from the house.

From there, we took the ferry across Windermere, the largest of the Lake Country lakes.  We're last in line in the first photo.  The third photo is the view from the ferry.

Then north along the western side of Ulswater, another of the large lakes.  We stopped for lunch at the Queen's Head Hotel near Troutbeck, and had excellent food.  The second photo is the view across the road from the Queen's Head.  Steeper and larger hills (fells) than around Grasmere and Windermere.

We drove up to and over Kirkstone Pass, one of the wilder scenic locations around here.

We paused at a small viewing area called Cow Bridge, with a great view of the fells and a very nice stone bridge.  The bench dates from Queen Victoria's time, with a date of 1897.

At Aira Force (a "force" is a waterfall), we parked and walked a half-mile up to the falls.  Well worth the trip.  The primroses were just growing beside the path; the tree roots look like something out of Lord of the Rings.

Ros and Tony at the falls.

More primroses, right next to the falls.  The second photo is a blow-up of part of the first.

The close-up photo of the falls shows that the water cascades into a pool behind the foreground rocks, before flowing out through a crevasse.

Our last stop was Larch Cottage Nurseries, which had an amazing variety of plant and other garden things.  More plants were purchased, to more than fill our car on the trip home.

I especially like the first flower shown, which I think looks like a set of darts.  It's called Dodecatheon 'Aphrodite'.  The last  is a magnolia; magnolias are very popular here.

Tomorrow, the drive back to Wiltshire.