The tree

We had a quiet weekend this weekend, just as well as next weekend is going to be manic as we are visiting Telford and trying to fit in as many people as possible in the two days.

The tree with chief decorator

So on Saturday we had a useful day. We went to our local farm shop to order our Christmas meat (Beef rib), then to Ingleton to get Tom his pre-school uniform (a red fleece with Ingleton School's crest on it) and then into High Bentham for a look around as we haven't been there yet.  Discovered a good range of shops including 2 hardware stores, a butchers and a bakers.  One of the hardware stores sells cake drums as well which is good.  We had lunch there, it was a freezing cold day so when I saw beef stew and dumplings on the menu for £5 Tom and I jumped at the chance, very good it was too.  When we moved we dumped the old Christmas tree - we never liked it.  This year we decided to buy a proper one, so we headed out to a seller and bought one we thought would fit in our lounge ok.  The afternoon was then spent listening to Christmas music and decorating the tree.  Tom did a good job and was very excited.

Sunday dawned bright so we decided to head out to the Lakes.  First stop was The World of Beatrix Pottter Attraction (free to all local residents this month).  I wouldn't say it was a huge success.  It started with a cinema presentation which Tom didn't like, he kept asking to leave the dark room.  It didn't really get much better - he was grumpy and agitated for the rest of the museum and didn't really take an interest (just as well we didn't pay to enter).  He liked the garden outside but didn't really like the models or exhibitions at all.  Oh well, they were doing half price afternoon tea for 2 in the cafe, so we had that for lunch so all was not lost.

We then got the car ferry, Mallard, across Windermere and drove to Tarn Hows so we could show Matt the walk we did with 'Naughty Miss Vera'  It was lovely.  The colours weren't as good as before, but the sky was clear and the scenery looked so beautiful.  Tom walked round happily.  We even saw some Herdys - hurray - no orange one though!  We then headed into Hawkshead for a drink and a quick look around before driving back home with a very tired Tom in the back.  

View of Tarn Hows