Ulverston - New Territory

The highlight of the week gone was a trip to Ulverston. My No 4 child is to be married in Leeds this coming Saturday and he and his wife will be living just outside this pretty town. For the last 5 years he has been training, in Dumfries and Galloway, to become an outdoor pursuits instructor. One thing I like about having four children is the opportunity to explore new areas that I may not have ever thought of visiting. So Friday, after work, I travelled a very long journey north. What I had forgotten about was that whilst Leicester had half term last week the rest of the country was just gearing up for half term! So the M1 and M6 were  a nightmare - no accidents but just heavy congestion and the journey took five and a half hours of stopping and starting. I encountered the first lot of traffic not far out of Leicester and I wanted to turn around and go home but with a car full of furniture, crockery etc and the thought of seeing my son and soon to be daughter-in-law helped me stick it out. Arriving in the pitch black I did not see any beautiful scenery but the next day when I peered out my bedroom window I could see the hills (Lake District). The weather was not happy so apologies for the picture.

They are renting a house in a small village, but I will not show you the house yet as they have not properly moved in and will have wedding gifts to unpack etc etc. So just my son is there until they get married. They opted to move into an unfurnished property so were keen to receive any bits and pieces to add to their new home. Now I didn't want to stay too long as they had wedding preparations to be getting on with. My son wanted to take me up a hill to see a lighthouse but I had only come in my work shoes so that was not on so instead he took me into Ulverston. What a treat this town is. It is the home to Stan Laurel - you've probably heard of Laurel and Hardy. There is also a museum which I look forward to visiting, another time.

There are lots of cute oldie worldie shops that I look forward to seeing another time.

Now in this small town I discovered TWO wool shops and a stall in the indoor market selling wool! How envious I am of my daughter-in-law!

I found some yarn bombing, apparently there is more but it was a rather rainy morning and not the sort of day for walking slowly!

But it was a prefect morning to be heading into a cute old fashioned cafe for a cream tea.

I forgot to take a picture of the outside of this building but they sell masses of different types of tea and anything else associated with making tea. Needless to say the tea was not teabags but tea leaves. To make it even more perfect the fire was roaring and I could see the wool shop opposite - paradise!

As you can see a lovely place. But the waitresses were rather busy serving customers and running the shop. Then I heard one very posh middle aged man seek out a waitress saying "are you serving in this shop because I'm tired of waiting. I thought of exposing myself but then thought that not a good idea because of the children around!" So I guess even Ulverston has its rather strange characters too!

The butcher shop had a fantastic array of meats and I loved the clock.

I love pumpkins not that I am into halloween, but you can make smiley faces with them!

The second wool shop - the baskets were closed because of the rain, but they were full with bargains.

Even the Oxfam shop looked exciting with its wooden stairs, but there was not time to visit.

Final picture of another tea shop. I am really looking forward to coming back again to visit and having more time to explore this lovely town and of course I have not even mentioned the spectacular countryside. Looking forward to seeing their new home set up. I am so happy that they have settled in such a lovely location.