22nd April Tuesday Tarn Howes and...

A lovely sunny morning, and we needed some Grasmere Gingerbread! So our first destination was rather obvious. Once we had the Gingerbread we continued south, and decided to take the back roads for a change, and spotted a sign for Wray Castle: National Trust, which rather puzzled us as it doen't seem to be in the book! However the car park and grounds are open free to the public, though the house is closed, probably to be renovated.
Although it looks ancient the house was built in 1840 for a retired surgeon called Dr Dawson, and some time later rented by Beatrix Potter's family.
We had a good walk round the grounds and garden, And there were some incredible trees and plants growing there, this one was close to the castle, I was attracted to it by what appeared to be bright red flowers, which actually turned out to be new leaves, as the flowers are white!
We ate our packed lunch on what appeared to be a balcony on the drive which gave us an incredible panoramic view to the north of the lake .
After lunch it was a short drive to Tarn Howes.
Though it looks lovely, it is of course artificial, being the result of combing three separate tarns in the pat: it was bought by Beatrix Potter, and bequeathed by her in due course to the National Trust.
As members of the National Trust we don't have to pay to use the car park, assuming of course you can find a spot! Even at this time of year we had to go round the car park three times before finding somewhere we could get in.
We bought an expensive though delicious ice cream cornet at the residen van, then walked over to the hilltop to take a couple of shots: I was impressed by the way that daffodils survive in what can only be described as the most exposed places...

The views from here are truly breathtaking, but as it was getting late so we set off back following the smaller lanes and roads, and we stopped on one corner to take a scenic shot and I spotted this little family group..