Sleeping with Swallows and Amazons

One of the books which I read prior to our trip was the children's story "Swallows and Amazons" by Arthur Ransome. The characters and the locations in the book are based on the Lake district and in Particular Coniston water. I was tickled to learn that the guesthouse we were spending our first night in, Bank Ground Farm Guesthouse was the site where Ransome wrote most of the book and on which he based the location Holly Howe in his book. There were certainly a lot of swallow careening about in the fields after the flies so it was easy to see his inspiration. The B&B is snuggled in the hills quite close to the lake. Many of the postcards in the Lake district which show "consiton water" also show Bank ground and its fields sitting in front of the lake. We had a lovely room with an elegant ornately carved bedframe. After bringing in our things and having a cup of tea in the room we explored the area around the farm. We walked down to the lake where we saw a mother duck and two ducklings. We each had a go on a tire swing on the lakes edge. Then we walked a ways down the road, past Ruskin's home and down to a little boat launch area where we again surveyed the lake before walking back to the B&B. We then drove into Conistion in search of a place to eat. We drove to The nearby town of Trover on a suggestion of the innkeeper at Bankground but decided to head back to Conistion's Black Bull pub as they brewed their own beer. We had a lovely meal of fish and chips with the locally brewed blue bird beer before heading back to the B&B to rest up for the next day.