It's supposed to be July, ain't it? ! It didn't look good first thing this morning when I got up: heavy mist on all the mountains I could see from my bedroom. And then, as I began to work out, the rain started to hit the windows. The weather during my stay in England has confirmed what everyone always says about England: there've been perhaps three days of sunshine out of the last twenty.

Not much point in moaning about it, so I got on with my work out. Not only has it been difficult, on account of fatigue and travel days, to squeeze in my workout, it's also almost always been difficult to squeeze my 6'6 frame into the floor-space of the single rooms I've been staying in. This hotel offered the least space so far for it, though, at only twenty-eight pounds per night, I can't complain.

The weather forecast had promised an improvement for the afternoon, so I decided to go ahead with my original plans. I got dressed up in my full hiking drag, and walked the mile down the road to the ferry landing at Waterhead. Since I had an hour or so to wait, I had time to walk through Borran's Park, where I played soccer a quarter-century ago with my family, and also explore what's left (very little) of the old Roman fort by the lake side.

Waterhead - the Southern end of England's longest lake, Windermere.

Full hiking drag :)

In Borran's Park

The remains of the Roman fort, now garrisoned by cows!

The 19th century steam ferry, Tern, pulls in.

It's only a 30-minute trip to Bowness, half way up Windermere. Even today, with the glowering mist and occasional rain, it's a pretty half-hour, with tiny islands passing by, the terns swooping down to see if we have any fish for them, and an occasional hill or mountain appearing suddenly out of the gloom on the horizon.

It looks like I'm on a rowing-boat doesn't it? I'm actually sitting in the very prow of the steamer, Tern.

But it was cold on the ferry, and no warmer once on land again. The rain returned, and I began to wish I had gloves. The visibility was so poor that there seemed little point in continuing with my original plan of taking the car-ferry across the other side of the lake opposite Bowness, and hiking up to a viewpoint that takes in two lakes. So after lunch, I walked South into Windermere town, and caught the bus to Rydal.

By Murphy's Law, of course, by the time I reached Rydal, the temperature had risen a little, and the skies had lightened. I toured the pretty gardens of Rydal Mount, the house where Wordsworth wrote some of his most famous poems. The gardens were partly landscaped by Wordsworth himself, but their chief charm comes from the overlook to Rydalwater, the small lake that sits next to Grasmere.

Sitting at the Summer house in the gardens of Rydal Mount. Wordsworth wrote a lot of his poems sitting in the same spot, and it's not hard to see where he got his inspiration from (you can just see a tiny patch of Rydalwater in the lower left). I even bought a tiny little compilation of his poems, just to get into the mood :)

Inevitably, though, the rain returned yet again, so I caught the bus into Grasmere town to visit the Heaton Cooper Studio which, for almost one hundred years, has exhibited the works of the family of the same name, several generations of which have religiously painted the meres, fells, tarns and towns of the Lake District.

Finally, it was time to head back to the hotel, by bus again. I guess, a kind of disappointing day, in that I'm not seeing the Lake District at its best. And, according to the weather forecast, the next few days aren't looking much better. Bloody english weather!