Hill Top

Two Saturdays ago, we took a day trip up to the Lake District. We had spent a few days there last summer, and it was just breathtaking. Since it's about a 2 hour drive from here, we thought we would make a day of it this time.

We got an early start and headed up with a picnic lunch packed. We thought we would try to go see Beatrix Potter's house first, so we programmed that into the GPS. Hill Top (the name of B. Potter's house) is located on the western side of Windermere which is the biggest lake in the Lake District, and we were coming from the southeast. We became a little unsure of our GPS as it seemed to be taking us more north than we expected. We soon figured out that the GPS had included a ferry ride in our route right across the lake! Here is what the GPS looked like as we crossed the lake. As you can see, it looks like we are driving into blue!Soon after our ferry ride, we made it to Hill Top which is located in the village of Sawrey. Here is a picture of the fields across the street from Beatrix Potter's house:Beatrix Potter purchased Hill Top Farm in 1905 with the royalties of her first few books, including The Tale of Peter Rabbit. (By the way, if you haven't seen the movie Mrs. Potter with Rene Zellweger, I do recommend it.) She split her time between London and the Lake District for about a decade, during which she continued writing and illustrating her "little books". Many of her illustrations were drawn right at Hill Top which makes visiting there such a treasure. (notice the front door!):
When we first stepped inside the house, we were greeted by a friendly volunteer who handed the children each a copy of a Beatrix Potter book called The Tale of Samuel Wiskers. The volunteer quickly opened up to this page, and pointed to the matching furniture in the room. She told us about how this story was inspired by a family of rats that had infested Hill Top, and she even pointed out the rat hole and furniture that the rats had gnawed on!

In each room we were greeted with more books open to pages that included something illustrated in the room. It was so much fun looking around and matching the illustrations with what we were looking at. My favorite experience doing this was in one of the upstairs rooms where there was a dollhouse. Now, my favorite Beatrix Potter book is The Tale of Two Bad Mice. In this book, there are two mice that go into a dollhouse one afternoon and are so delighted to find such lavish furnishings and food. On one page, they try to carve a ham that they've found, but they cannot slice it because it is fake, of course. I always loved that part of the book, and here in front of me was the little ham that Beatrix Potter had drawn for that page. It is such a simple thing, I know, but seeing that dollhouse ham just made my day!

Outside, we were able to take a stroll through her lovely garden. I took a picture of the kids here with the house in the background that can clearly be seen drawn in the book, The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck. And how delighted we were to see a bunny in the garden; our own little Peter Rabbit! I seriously had the thought "I wonder how much they pay this bunny to stay here!" But, I still fell for it like a desperate tourist and now have about 15 pictures of this little rabbit!
After we left Hill Top, we took a short drive to the next town over where there was a Beatrix Potter Gallery. There, we were able to see some drawings from her original manuscripts.

It was then time to enjoy some of the gorgeous scenery around us. We didn't have to drive very far to enjoy the views of some local mountains and lakes.We finished up at Coniston Lake where the kids enjoyed some time throwing rocks and sticks into the water, and of course, we found a pub from Ethan's "Good Beer Guide" for dinner.

It was a long day with the drive, but well worth it!