Much of this trip was planned ahead and we've been dutifully checking off our list as we move along here. Today was the first day that we really veered off of that path and rearranged a few days and said, "Let's go check out Beatrix Potter's house. It was about 4 hours out of the way but we were itching for something we knew nothing about. Of course we did see the movie and the countryside did look stunning so we thought we'd check it out. And boy was it worth it! I fell so in love with this part of England today that I felt like renting a little cottage and never leaving. I know the winter would be miserable for me- so cold and damp- but today I felt like the damp cold would be little price to pay for this kind of scenery. It was just so cute. There is no other way to describe it. Cute. And really, I'm not usually even into cute. I'm most usually drawn to warm colors and climates, lots of oranges, reds and dark woods and this didn't really have any of that. It could be that it just pulled on the heartstrings of my childhood and growing up with Peter Rabbit. It literally felt like we were in one of her picture books that had magically popped into life. I was mesmerized. I was dizzy with delight and these tiny villages and I fell madly in love with the lake district of England.
At The World of Beatrix Potter all her characters have come to physical reality. It's kind of like a Peter Rabbit amusement park. The more serious Beatrix Potter sites like Hilltop, her home frown upon this place and consider it kind of tacky, but I have to say the girls LOVED it! I did too really. If the English think this is tacky they ought to check out colored blinking xmas lights on palm trees in Cali in winter! I would be thrilled with more things like this to do with the kids in the US. Classical music was playing and you could read her books from LCD panels. Ok, so they're little computers, but still...they display book pages- nothing animated and nothing that squeaks in a weird voice.
