Patariki Gets to Meet Peter Rabbit and Friends

Thursday July 22nd

Today was always going to be a “Beatrix Potter” Day. I heard them planning it and deciding which way to take me. In the end they drove me to Lake Windermere to catch the Ferry across to Sawrey and Hawkeshead. It was an easy drive in the direction of the ferry and when they got to the ferry there was no queue and got straight on. It cost £4 and five min later they were there. It was just a short rest for me but something different. Over the other side the roads were narrow and had stone walls up the sides. I had a few frights where branches seemed to leap out at me and walls seemed awfully close. We had to squeeze carefully past a few vans and cars. When they got near Hill Top there were no parking signs everywhere and the only place you were allowed to park was in the National Trust car park which was nearly full by the time we got there. They squeezed me into a park and locked and left me while visiting the house.


Patariki got to go on the tour of the house.
Being members of the New Zealand Historic Places Trust lets you into all the National Trust properties for free. Usually they take the card and look at it closely and then say, “Oh yes. Okay”. Not here though, they recognised the card as being from NZ before Alan got it out of his wallet and said, “Welcome to visitors from NZ”. They must get a lot of them here. We had to walk through the village and through a wonderful cottage garden to reach Hilltop Farm.

Hilltop was the property that Beatrice Potter bought and lived in until she married William Heelis. This was the inspiration for many of her stories. Because the house is small and many visitors come each day to visit it, tickets are timed so that there are not too many people in the house at once. Our time was 11.15. Inside the coal stove had an open fire burning and the smell of burning coal drifted through the house.
It also helped light what was a dark panelled room. In every room there was one of her little books open at a specific page to show how she had used things in and around the room in her illustrations. The house was small but full of fine things. The tale of Tom kitten is one of the stories that clearly takes place in the house and garden at Hill Top. When Beatrice Potter died she left an enormous amount of property in the Lakes to the National Trust; most to be let at a reasonable rate. Hill Top was not to be let to anyone and the rooms and furnishings in it “should be kept in their present condition”. It is a collection of her most treasured possessions.

We walked around the beautiful cottage gardens which are kept planted the way she would have had them. You could almost see the characters hiding in it and I had my photo taken in Peter Rabbits garden.
As we walked back to the village Alan photographed the various scenes on the guide that were used in several of her books including the Ginger and Pickles shop.
Back into Hemi and down some more very narrow lanes to the delightful village of Hawkeshead. This was a real find. This is primarily a tourist town, but so neat and clean and with hanging baskets everywhere. This village was where Willie Heelis had his law practice and when he died he gifted the building to the National Trust as well. It now houses the Beatrix Potter Gallery with many of the original sketches and watercolours of her work. It is a changing exhibition as they have so much, but this year is the celebration of 100 years since the publication of the tale of Mrs Tittlemouse so the featured exhibition is “Keeping House with Mrs Tittlemouse”.
Both Mary and Alan headed for a bargain book sale and had to be sensible even though there were some wonderful books at amazing prices. They were heavy and would have quickly cut out the weight allowance going home. But Mary did find the Making of Miss Potter on sale for £1 and it had been £8 in the posh shops selling souvenirs.

They drove through more tricky lanes back to Bowness hoping to find a free WiFi cafe to sit and have coffee while working online but there didn’t seem to be an obvious one. The weather had packed it in again, so they went to The World of Beatrice Potter, which the Japanese and American’s flock to and is primarily for kids. But the two movies that were shown joined all the dots from the previous properties and finished the Beatrice Potter day off nicely. I enjoyed seeing all the characters in their settings and wandering around Peter Rabbit’s garden.

On the way back to the van Mary spied a book sale in the local hall. So in they went, and she came out very happy. She managed to get the last novel in the Poldark saga for £1. This is the book she bought in Hay on Wye in 1993 and loaned to someone and never got it back. Then she found it in a second hand book sale in 2007 somewhere in England but it was in a box that got stolen and didn’t make it home. So perhaps this is third time lucky and she will get to keep this one.

Back at the campsite they planned the next few days and realised that this was the last campsite for a few days with washing machines and driers so hastily got the washing together and done.

For dinner they bought New Zealand lamb chops more cheaply than they could in NZ. How can that be?

Mary is making a scrapbook to compliment this blog, so she was busy with glu sticks and scissors until bedtime. No time for TV off the hard drive tonight.