Still, there are lots of lovely memories of long steep walks to breathtaking viewpoints, even if the shots are blurry. On one very memorable day we set off early to a secret carpark in Sawrey whose location was passed on by a very friendly National Trust warden as the only hope of parking anywhere near Beatrix Potter's house at Hill Top - a visit we've avoided for years because of the alleged parking nightmares and the overcrowding.
This time we collected tickets for late afternoon entry and in the meantime took ourselves off for a walk along the paths Beatrix Potter trod - and drew, and described. We read The Tale of Mr Tod under Oatmeal Crags where he has one of his residences; we looked at the Tale of Jeremy Fisher at Moss Eccles Tarn surrounded by the water lilies Miss Potter planted there:
And we lunched at the Tower Bank Arms where Kep the collie tries to find out where Jemima Puddleduck has run off to.
The National Trust helpfully provides information about which houses in Sawrey were used as the settings for which stories, but the most astonishing are at Hill Top itself - every room, every piece of furniture appears in a Tale somewhere.
Tom Kitten's residence, anyone?
And we even found Peter Rabbit - not in Mr McGregor's garden, but in the meadow next to it - look closely and you may see him to the left of the tree!
