Day 426: Sketching Lake Windermere

24/09/2022

This morning we woke up to the shocking news that a Victorian team was about to win the AFL Grand Final, whattttt?! The Victorian Cats demolished Buddy’s non Victorian Swans who admittedly “buggered it up”. As we are still on the road there was no Grand Final party with parmis and Vegemite this year.

We started the day back up at Keswick for the Saturday market. Unfortunately the kids have eaten the Lake District out of “spoooooky cats” so the girls went hunting to get their morning sugar fix.

After 425 days of living in a wind tunnel, turns out all we needed was Eloise to buy a kite for the weather to become dead still. Eloise found a small park and was quick to remember she was owed a kite lesson. Although there was no wind, she had bigger problems, her kite was a real lemon. Yes, that thing she is holding is her Mickey Mouse kite. Funnily enough, Eloise loved her wee kite and dashed up and down the park to make it fly.

Across the park we noticed the Derwent Pencil Museum, both the kids did not need a second invitation. On arrival they were both given a pencil each as their entry ticket, they could not believe luck.

There was an interesting story about the secret Derwent WWII pencil. “The ‘spy stationery’ was created by Charles Fraser Smith in 1942 alongside the Cumberland Pencil Factory, who aimed to assist Lancaster Bomber pilots in their efforts or help prisoners-of-war escape German camps. The former site of the Cumberland Pencil Factory, which currently sits alongside the Derwent Pencil Museum, was a key part of the manufacture and distribution of these pencils across RAF bases and Europe. Charles was revered as an inventor and it is thought he inspired Ian Fleming with the character of Q in the James Bond series”. One of these pencils made a surprise appearance on Antiques Roadshow “a spy pencil made by Cumberland Pencil Factory, on the site of Derwent Pencil Museum in Keswick, was valued at £400 on the Antiques Roadshow”. We don’t want to over excite you all with pencil facts, but if that was not enough for you, Lachlan loved the main attraction, the World’s longest pencil.

Eloise cracked the children’s pencil code, collecting clues throughout the museum and won herself a stack of, you guessed it, pencils. This made her very happy, she gave one to Lachlan and said some were for Xavier too.

The museum opened in 1981 and is home to one of the biggest colouring pencils in the world, the idea of technical manager Barbara Murray. The yellow pencil was completed on 28 May 2001, is 7.91 metres (26 ft) long, and weighs 446.36 kilograms (984.1 lb). The first pencil factory in Keswick opened in 1832. The second and current factory was started in the 1920s and completed in 1950 (it closed in 2007 when the owners moved production to Workington). The museum now receives over 80,000 visitors a year from all around the world. It is particularly popular with visitors from the county of Yorkshire, due to the importance of pencil production for the local economy during the 1930s. The museum features as one of the locations in the 2012 film Sightseers.

The kids were buzzing from the pencil museum, not quite sure why they were having such a wonderful time in there, but hey ho, the day was back on track after the reality of kite struggles. We grabbed lunch to go and headed down to Windermere pier. It was another beautiful day, the autumn Lake District gamble had seemed to pay off. We figured, we should actually see Lake Windermere properly. What better way than a cruise. We have had a bit of a love-hate relationship with boat cruises, but the kids were in fantastic spirits after looking at pencils all morning. It seemed everyone had the same idea, it was packed down at the pier, luckily we did not have to wait too long for a boat.

After a lovely cruise we headed back into Windermere. We were looking a bit out of place so had to throw on the hiking baby carrier to blend in. However, it is difficult to take Eloise anywhere that does not involve Emma’s bike, she always makes sure it is front and centre with the days plans.

Back with the Monarchy news, “the first picture of the new ledger stone marking the Queen’s final resting place in Windsor has been released by Buckingham Palace”.