Rain was predicted for today, and for once the weather forecasters got it right. There were only small breaks during the day. As a consequence we only did a couple of things and rested during the afternoon.

We visited the Windermere Steamboat Museum and saw Beatrix Potter in her boat, as she would have been sketching, drawing from the inspiration she saw around the lake. I’m sure there will be more on Beatrix later in the week.



Lots of historical boats from the area including ‘Mavis’ (later renamed to ‘Amazon’) and ‘Coch-Y-Bonddhu’, a restoration of a boat often mistaken for ‘Swallow’. ‘Coch-Y’ and ‘Swallow’ were both originally owned by Arthur Ransome and, together with Mavis, were obviously a source of inspiration for his books in the Swallows and Amazons series.



Leigh read Swallows and Amazons as a young teenager and, as a result, was keen to see the exhibition at the museum. It included the two boats mentioned above as well as other interesting historical information on the various inspirations that Ransome used in writing the books.

We bought the DVD of the Swallows and Amazons movie (1974), which was written for screen by David Wood from the Arthur Ransome book. It stars Virginia McKenna and Ronald Fraser. Perhaps Callum can watch it when he’s old enough to appreciate it :)

We went for a short drive to Ambleside, 4 miles north of Bowness, at the top of Windermere. Because of the rain we were restricted to driving around although I did go to the Hayes Centre to see some of their gardens and take a wander through the shopping complex. While it concentrates on gardening stuff, it is certainly not limited to that and includes books, games, jams and preserves etc.