You will need:
1 Large saucepan
1 Long Wooden/Plastic Spoon
10-15 tea bags
Mugs to drink the tea
Showing posts with label Lake District. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lake District. Show all posts
Sunday, 2 May 2010
How to make a "Vat of Tea"
You will need:
1 Large saucepan
1 Long Wooden/Plastic Spoon
10-15 tea bags
Mugs to drink the tea
Wonderful Windermere-A Holiday in the Lakes without a car
After wat
ching the 2006 film of Miss Potter starring Renée Zellweger and Ewan McGregor, I was desperate to explore the Lake District for myself. I knew that I wanted to see Hill Top Farm and the many other Beatrix Potter related attractions but I didn’t really know that much about the area itself except that it rained a lot.
Just like Beatrix Potter herself used to do, I took the five hour train journey to Windermere with four other friends from London Euston Station. It certainly was a civilised way to travel and it wasn’t too expensive either. I spent the train journey reading up on Beatrix Potter’s life, Wordsworth’s poetry and of course, chatting with my friends. Having never ever travelled so far by train; it felt like such an adventure, like we were part of Swallows and Amazons. When the train arrived in the Lake District we were struck by the lack of buildings and the vast expanse of green countryside littered with sheep.
Our accommodation for the week was the Lake District Backpackers Hostel( www.lakedistrictbackpackers.co.uk ). It was in such a perfect location as it was just two minutes walk from the station, supermarket and bus station and it was also an easy downhill walk to Lake Windermere. We stayed in a room that slept seven and throughout the week we had two other people sleeping in the room with us. Both people were lovely and one of the girls, on holiday in the UK from Taiwan, even shared some of her Grasmere gingerbread with us and gave us some tips on where were the best places to visit in the area and which were best avoided. The hostel was a great base for the week providing a clean and well stocked kitchen to cook in and a sitting room with a computer, sky TV, a bookshelf stuffed full of books on the local area, board games and leaflets.
On the first night we were determined to find Lake Winderemere before we went to sleep. Armed with a map and enough money for an ice cream we headed off in the direction of the Lake. Despite completing Duke of Edinburgh Silver award, we all struggled to find the lake in Winderemere until we finally realised it was situated in the neighbouring town of Bowness on Winderemere. After regaining some sort of sense of direction it wasn’t long before we all caught a glimpse of the old fashioned rowing boats lined up on the bank of the lake. It was a very relaxing experience watching the sun go down whilst eating an ice cream in the cool night’s breeze.
Our main priority was to visit Beatrix Potter’s home Hill Top Farm and the Beatrix Potter gallery in Hawkshead, which displayed a large collection of original paintings from her books. We took the bus from Windermere to Hawkshead which stopped off outside the flagship store of “Hawkshed” the outdoor attire company. There was a small café inside the store and as we were too early for the gallery we decided to have a cup of tea and some cake. This was not a good move as the café had no fresh milk meaning we had to use sachets of milk in our tea; there was also no clotted cream on our cream teas and instead there was squirty cream, not a good substitute! After our “cup of disappointment” we entered the gallery which was a small country cottage just off the main road. The artwork on show was exquisite and not surprisingly, identical to the copies printed in the books. Due to the minute scale of the building, we had finished looking around it quite quickly and our next stop was Hill Top farm. No Stagecoach buses travel to Near Sawry the village where Hill Top is situated so it meant that we had to trudge along the main road for two miles in the pouring rain. When we arrived at Hill Top we were told that there were no more tickets left for the house because it was high season. We were so disappointed as Hill Top was one main reasons for travelling to the Lake District. However, when we explained that we had travelled all the way from the other side of the country and then had to walk from Hawkshead we were allowed to buy the last remaining tickets for the house which meant a three hour wait until our ticket was valid. We managed to find a very quaint and charming tea shop to while away a few hours in which was just down the road from Hill Top. Hill Top farm itself is so much better than I had imagined it to be. Full of Beatrix’s old possessions such as her dolls house and drawings it felt just as though she had gone off for a walk and would be returning. The guides in the house were full of knowledge about what the house was like when Beatrix first moved in and about the style of decoration. One guide was very insistent that we would have never seen the pattern of wallpaper on the wall of one of the rooms because it was “real William Morris” and even though one of my friends had the identical wallpaper at home he was still insistent that no identical wallpaper was ever created. The village of Near Sawry is so picturesque and very quintessentially English despite the signs being written in Japanese and English.
After being advised not to visit Wordsworth’s house, Dove Cottage, in Grasmere due to the extortionate entrance fees we decided to go to the Grasmere gingerbread shop instead. It is a tiny shop built in 1630 that can fit a maximum of five people in at a time. It is backed onto St Oswald’s Church where Wordsworth is buried, however, it wasn’t too difficult to find as the wonderful aroma of freshly baked gingerbread is enough to guide you to it. This gingerbread is so unique and unlike anything you can buy elsewhere that people travel from miles around just to buy some. Another lakeland delicacy is Cartmel sticky toffee pudding which was originally sold in Cartmel village shop but is even sold in Fortnum and Masons, London, now.
The weather was terrible for the whole week that we were staying there and we only managed to have one sunny day. We explored the town of Windermere and it's shops,especially Scarlett Ribbon a shop selling vintage home ware and clothes. The constant rain made it impossible to carry out any of the walks that we had planned to do but it did mean that we could have a duvet day inside the hostel. We occupied all the sofas and cocooned ourselves in our duvets whilst we all chatted, read and watched television. This was the ultimate way to relax after a busy week. We even made a vat of tea so that we could have endless cups of tea without having to boil the kettle. It was perfect.
We all went to the Lake District in hope of experiencing what drew Beatrix Potter away from London and to the Lakes. We certainly experienced that and a lot more. It was such a memorable experience and I learnt so much such as learning how to row on the lake, how to read a bus timetable and I learnt so much about the Lake District itself and the people that made it great. The Lake District is a magical part of the world, so unspoilt by commercialism however still managing to maintain a tourist industry.
ching the 2006 film of Miss Potter starring Renée Zellweger and Ewan McGregor, I was desperate to explore the Lake District for myself. I knew that I wanted to see Hill Top Farm and the many other Beatrix Potter related attractions but I didn’t really know that much about the area itself except that it rained a lot.Just like Beatrix Potter herself used to do, I took the five hour train journey to Windermere with four other friends from London Euston Station. It certainly was a civilised way to travel and it wasn’t too expensive either. I spent the train journey reading up on Beatrix Potter’s life, Wordsworth’s poetry and of course, chatting with my friends. Having never ever travelled so far by train; it felt like such an adventure, like we were part of Swallows and Amazons. When the train arrived in the Lake District we were struck by the lack of buildings and the vast expanse of green countryside littered with sheep.
Our accommodation for the week was the Lake District Backpackers Hostel( www.lakedistrictbackpackers.co.uk ). It was in such a perfect location as it was just two minutes walk from the station, supermarket and bus station and it was also an easy downhill walk to Lake Windermere. We stayed in a room that slept seven and throughout the week we had two other people sleeping in the room with us. Both people were lovely and one of the girls, on holiday in the UK from Taiwan, even shared some of her Grasmere gingerbread with us and gave us some tips on where were the best places to visit in the area and which were best avoided. The hostel was a great base for the week providing a clean and well stocked kitchen to cook in and a sitting room with a computer, sky TV, a bookshelf stuffed full of books on the local area, board games and leaflets.
On the first night we were determined to find Lake Winderemere before we went to sleep. Armed with a map and enough money for an ice cream we headed off in the direction of the Lake. Despite completing Duke of Edinburgh Silver award, we all struggled to find the lake in Winderemere until we finally realised it was situated in the neighbouring town of Bowness on Winderemere. After regaining some sort of sense of direction it wasn’t long before we all caught a glimpse of the old fashioned rowing boats lined up on the bank of the lake. It was a very relaxing experience watching the sun go down whilst eating an ice cream in the cool night’s breeze.
Our main priority was to visit Beatrix Potter’s home Hill Top Farm and the Beatrix Potter gallery in Hawkshead, which displayed a large collection of original paintings from her books. We took the bus from Windermere to Hawkshead which stopped off outside the flagship store of “Hawkshed” the outdoor attire company. There was a small café inside the store and as we were too early for the gallery we decided to have a cup of tea and some cake. This was not a good move as the café had no fresh milk meaning we had to use sachets of milk in our tea; there was also no clotted cream on our cream teas and instead there was squirty cream, not a good substitute! After our “cup of disappointment” we entered the gallery which was a small country cottage just off the main road. The artwork on show was exquisite and not surprisingly, identical to the copies printed in the books. Due to the minute scale of the building, we had finished looking around it quite quickly and our next stop was Hill Top farm. No Stagecoach buses travel to Near Sawry the village where Hill Top is situated so it meant that we had to trudge along the main road for two miles in the pouring rain. When we arrived at Hill Top we were told that there were no more tickets left for the house because it was high season. We were so disappointed as Hill Top was one main reasons for travelling to the Lake District. However, when we explained that we had travelled all the way from the other side of the country and then had to walk from Hawkshead we were allowed to buy the last remaining tickets for the house which meant a three hour wait until our ticket was valid. We managed to find a very quaint and charming tea shop to while away a few hours in which was just down the road from Hill Top. Hill Top farm itself is so much better than I had imagined it to be. Full of Beatrix’s old possessions such as her dolls house and drawings it felt just as though she had gone off for a walk and would be returning. The guides in the house were full of knowledge about what the house was like when Beatrix first moved in and about the style of decoration. One guide was very insistent that we would have never seen the pattern of wallpaper on the wall of one of the rooms because it was “real William Morris” and even though one of my friends had the identical wallpaper at home he was still insistent that no identical wallpaper was ever created. The village of Near Sawry is so picturesque and very quintessentially English despite the signs being written in Japanese and English.
After being advised not to visit Wordsworth’s house, Dove Cottage, in Grasmere due to the extortionate entrance fees we decided to go to the Grasmere gingerbread shop instead. It is a tiny shop built in 1630 that can fit a maximum of five people in at a time. It is backed onto St Oswald’s Church where Wordsworth is buried, however, it wasn’t too difficult to find as the wonderful aroma of freshly baked gingerbread is enough to guide you to it. This gingerbread is so unique and unlike anything you can buy elsewhere that people travel from miles around just to buy some. Another lakeland delicacy is Cartmel sticky toffee pudding which was originally sold in Cartmel village shop but is even sold in Fortnum and Masons, London, now.
The weather was terrible for the whole week that we were staying there and we only managed to have one sunny day. We explored the town of Windermere and it's shops,especially Scarlett Ribbon a shop selling vintage home ware and clothes. The constant rain made it impossible to carry out any of the walks that we had planned to do but it did mean that we could have a duvet day inside the hostel. We occupied all the sofas and cocooned ourselves in our duvets whilst we all chatted, read and watched television. This was the ultimate way to relax after a busy week. We even made a vat of tea so that we could have endless cups of tea without having to boil the kettle. It was perfect.
We all went to the Lake District in hope of experiencing what drew Beatrix Potter away from London and to the Lakes. We certainly experienced that and a lot more. It was such a memorable experience and I learnt so much such as learning how to row on the lake, how to read a bus timetable and I learnt so much about the Lake District itself and the people that made it great. The Lake District is a magical part of the world, so unspoilt by commercialism however still managing to maintain a tourist industry.
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