This was a fascinating travel day.  We went through Keswick and down the valley to Buttermere.  Just another trip through the incredible fells and valleys, but this one was over a pass that was quite high.  Really, the issue was the steepness of the ascent and descent.  Complicated by the constant rambling sheep on the road.  Lambs were everywhere and their mothers were simply not as attentive as the lambs preferred.  You’ll be seeing lots of pictures of sheep and us, as we ramble through their pastures.  Makes it look like a good thing to do, but it is fraught with difficulty.  Every night now we’re cleaning our shoes! 

The small towns are still our favorites.  Had lunch at a pub near Coniston, after an ice cream stop in an even smaller spot – we saw the sign that the Ayrshire farm made its own ice cream.  We are now in Torver, up another vale rather close to Millom, the home of our Huddlestuns until our ancestor left for the colonies.  We will travel there tomorrow to meet the vicar of the church and see some gravestones inside the old church next to the castle.  We have just had another great pub meal, well cooked and imaginative food. We now feel we’ve had more good food than we had the last time we were here, and all the good food is out in the country pubs.  We will all go on diets when we return – maybe.

All this happened while we drove on very narrow roads, on which passing another car meant one had to pull off into a “passing space”.  When a truck appeared, and usually at a high rate of speed, things got dicey.  Roads are winding and each side is a stone wall or a thick hedge – no berms. Today’s driver, Betsy, managed to do very well.  Yesterday Cathy has some equally challenging drives.  We have now learned that the sheep we’ve been seeing, mostly black lambs and ewes either brown or gray and white, are a heritage breed, kept from extinction by Beatrix Potter (of Peter Rabbit fame).  She used much of her accumulated millions to buy farms in this part of England and had these sheep raised on all of them.  They have become the regional breed, something like Hertfyrd, but I’m not sure of the name.  They are unable to be concerned about people or cars, so we had a few close encounters with gamboling lambs and irate ewes. 

The girls are out walking as I write, so I need to be sure I can get back to the pub to order dessert before the kitchen closes.  We’ll have a final visit there before we retire to our lovely cottage for the night.  On to Millom tomorrow!

Mary

Our drive from Beckermet to Borough on Furness - across the fells with the sheep in a common pasture.  We drove over cattle guards at either end.  Our second "common grazing land" of the day.