Touring Scotland with the EV - Days 25 - 27

  

Near Sawrey

 Days 25 - 27 (Wednesday 26th to Friday 28th October)


Here is the final entry recording our tour to Scotland 2016, in the Renault Zoe 100% Electric Vehicle. We have had a wonderful month and covered about 2000 miles, the weather has been amazing for the time of year, a truly beautiful autumn. 

On Wednesday we had a whole day in the Lake District. First stop for the morning was Ambleside and while we charged the car we visited a garden centre recommended to us by our hostess at the guest house. Hayes Garden World had an amazing display of Christmas decorations and trees. We eventually found the impressive plant area too!!

Ambleside - Hayes Garden Centre

Next stop was Hawkeshead, we had a walk around the village and found The National Trust Beatrix Potter Gallery, displaying may of her original drawings, paintings and stories. 2016 marks a special anniversary for the Lake District as it's 150 years since Beatrix Potter was born and so there was plenty going on to celebrate this event. 

Hawkeshead Village

From Hawkeshead we went on to Beatrix Potter's home - Hill Top Farm - It was fascinating walking around the garden and house. 

The Shop

Hill Top

We had time for a drink in The Tower Bank Arms and a chat with Mr McGregor!

Mr Cooper and Mr McGregor

Tower Bank Arms

From here we drove to Sawrey to catch the ferry across Lake Windermere back to Windermere where we were staying.

Windermere in the rain from the ferry

The rest of the trip was spent travelling back to Kent, staying overnight in a hotel in Coventry so we could meet up with Craig Tonge of the Renault Zoe Owners Club (RZOC), who has been very helpful in our learning curve with owning an EV. The club has a facebook page which has proved very useful in sharing hints and tips too.

A brilliant trip and we would love to do it again, revisiting some places and taking in others we couldn't include this time. We would also like to have more time in the Lake District.

Thanks for reading about our adventures.

Lynn x

Touring Scotland with the EV - Day 24

Days 24 (Tuesday 25th October)

We left Fort William with our heads in cloud and drove through Glencoe, still in the clouds for part of the morning.

By the time we reached Loch Lomond the sky had cleared and it was a beautiful, but cold sunny day.

A breif stop off at Cumnock for a car charge.

We arrived in Cumbria later in the afternoon, with the whole of Wednesday to explore the area of Windermere as we book two nights to stay here.

Thanks for looking

Lynn x

Touring Scotland with the EV - Day 23

Days 23 (Monday 24th October)

With two nights booked for Fort William set off bright and early to Fort William Station to catch the The Jacobite (the train used in the Harry Potter films for the Hogworts' Express). It was being prepared for the day's trip to Mallaig. We were able to take a few photos while it waited at the platform for the day's lucky travellers. We were lucky to catch this opportunity as the season finished the following weekend.

While in the area we could see Ben Nevis and wanted to explore further so drove to Glen Nevis and the Ben Nevis Visitor Centre, from where to took a walk around, but not up the mountain. 

From here we drove to Neptune's Staircase, series of 8 locks on the Caledonian Canal at Banavie, just north of Loch Linhe. It is the longest staircase lock in the UK and takes boats about 90 minutes to travel up the 64 feet to the top.

It's difficult to capture the scale of these locks in a photo.

Thanks for looking

Lynn x

Creative Planner

For my second project for the Papermaze blog using Simple Stories - The Reset Girl collection, I created this layout using the delightful Library Cards. They brought back memories of an early Saturday job I had working in the local library. I'm showing my age - it's along time since we needed cards like this to take books out of a library!!

I also loved the planner elements of this collection and thought I would use them to record my daughter's love of her planner, journal and other notebooks. As a writer she is always jotting things down in note books and over the years she has built up a beautiful collection.

Please follow the links on the Papermaze blog to the shop to find the materials I have used.

Thanks for looking.

Lynn x

Thoroughly Modern Mary Wallhanging

Over on the Papermaze Blog you will find details of the first of two posts showing what I have been busy making with the amazing new The Reset Girl papers from Simple Stories.

My mother (Mary) was a dedicated follower of fashion in the 1950's and as an accomplished dressmaker made all her own dresses. The papers reminded me of some early photos of her, so I picked just a few of the many snaps my father took to make this wall hanging using three embroidery hoops.

Pop over to the blog to find out how I used the embroidery hoops and other elements to make this wall hanging layout. You will find links to the shop in my post.

I will be back with another project focusing on the planning elements in these stunning papers.

Thanks for looking.
Lynn x