" I WANDER'D lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze"
Wordsworth, 1804
From Scotland, we made our way down to the Lake District. After meandering along the narrow lane by Lake Windermere, we reached Ambleside and went in search of Cote How Guest House.
It's a delightful historic house and we stayed in the Rydal Suite which was once the studio of a local artist Frederick Yates who had painted the ex-American president, Woodrow Wilson beneath the skylight in the suite.
Ancient it definitely was as the wooden floors were not even and the great bath tub had no tap mixer and we had to use the kettle as a make-shift shower (see how Andrew got his hair washed...notice his World Cup boxers?)
Swallows nested in the barn behind the house where a river ran into Lake Grasmere. Mr Harry, the rabbit and his family lived in a hutch in the front garden and friendly Tippy, the owner's golden retriever were all on hand to make our stay there so idyllic.
A rainbow even appeared the next morning to greet us...
Nobody visits the lakes without taking a walk to figure out how such perambulations inspired the poetry of Wordsworth, Keats and Shelley. Although the daffodils had come and gone (in early spring it seems), we did pass Dora's Field, a daffodil plot that Wordsworth bought for his daughter just next to his house in Rydal...
More shots of our looong trek round Lake Grasmere...
On the morning of our departure, an injured badger was found nearby and our host, David Welch, a former park ranger, was on hand to rescue the poor creature...
posted by joy lee @ 4:44 AM
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