In full swing

The spring half term holiday is always the busiest time at Hill Top - with lots of overseas visitors and schools in this country on holiday.  We're very pleased to see you all!

We found this mug left on the sign from the previous day - and still full of tea we hadn't had time to drink!

Even Sam was tired - although I don't know what he'd been doing.

It's a dog's life!

Luckily the Windermere car ferry, which had been out of the water for a refit, came back into service.  But what had they done to it?

Only joking!

All bright and shiny

The weather has generally been kind - raining at night.  Lambing went well and there are some bare fields now where farmers have taken their first crop of silage.  However, sometimes it does rain all day.  This is the garden Pete doesn't show you!

Umbrellas add extra colour to the garden

Ready, steady, timber!

After all the frantic preparations we're open again - and it was alright on the day!
There's a real buzz about the start of a new season, getting back with old friends and looking forward to getting to know the new seasonal team - not to mention greeting all our visitors.  We also get a sneak preview of the new exhibition in the Beatrix Potter Gallery (lots of things we didn't know about Beatrix on holiday) and the little touches in Hill Top house which suggest she might have just returned from one.
There was some quick painting of the toilets at Hill Top and some hard work by Janet cleaning up all my splashes!  (You don't want a picture of that!)
It's an ill wind - our green entrance sign was a casualty of the wind - so we've got a brand new one which is much prettier. 

Luke putting up our new sign

 

Apart from that, we escaped lightly weather-wise - just one or two extra lakes and a few trees down on Claife Heights.

Other

Sam (the ticket office dog) reckons trees are easier to climb when they've fallen.  This one is in Ash Landing car park.

 

 

 

 The rabbit (part of the children's trail at Hill Top) seems to be doing fine tree climbing - and proved difficult to find.  Other ducks and rabbits can be found kite flying, swinging and bird watching to complete their '50 Things'

 I thought this was a 'white van' convention but turns out they were working on the electricity supply for Claife Courtyard!

If you go down to the woods .....

Every year I fall in love with autumn.  Trees and bracken cast off their summer uniform of green and more green and have a fling in yellow, brown and red.  Branches emerge to wave witchy fingers against the sky whilst, on the ground, toadstools appear to test our skills at identification.

We christened this one, found at Wray Castle, the 'Hot Cross Bun' fungus!

Ready for tea?

I could envy Beatrix Potter many talents but in autumn I wish I had her ability to paint fungi.  Not only did she make detailed botanical illustrations but she also conducted some pioneering research into their life cycles.  Her 'partner in crime' was a retired postman, Charles McIntosh, 'the Perthshire naturalist' who she met on holiday in Scotland when she was 26 and kept up a correspondence with.  At the time, scientists were mainly concerned with the micro fungi responsible for fermentation and diseases such as mildew so it was left to Beatrix to investigate the larger specimens.  This she did to much critical acclaim and it is something of a mystery why her paper on the subject was never published by the Royal Society.  The Armitt museum in Ambleside has a fascinating exhibition detailing Beatrix's life as a scientist, as well as other aspects of her life.

Beatrix Potter's painting of Amanita Muscaria Fly Agaric) from the Beatrix Potter Gallery collection

Look!  Ive found one.  Sam posing by some sort of Funnel (?) on his holiday in Scotland

Back home, he sent this Puffball/Earthball rolling down the hill near Claife Viewing Station.  He was disappointed it wasn't Hisball!