It is best known as the home of the poet William Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy Wordsworth from December 1799 to May 1808, where they spent over eight years of "plain living, but high thinking".
William throughout this period wrote much of the poetry for which he is remembered today, including his "Ode: Intimations of Immortality", "Ode to Duty", "My Heart Leaps Up" and "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud", together with parts of his autobiographical epic, The Prelude.
William Wordsworth married his wife Mary in 1802, and she and her sister joined the Wordsworths at Dove Cottage.
The family quickly expanded, with the arrival of three children in four years, and the Wordsworths left Dove Cottage in 1808 to seek larger lodgings.
Today it has a Grade 1 listing and sees some 70,000 visitors per year.
It is situated in Sawtry in modern day Cumbria, part of the North-west of England.
She left the house to the National Trust upon her death in 1943.
The house, farm and nearby villages feature in Potter's books, The Tale of the Pie and the Patty-Pan, The Tale of Tom Kitten, The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck and The Tale of Samuel Whiskers or The Roly-Poly Pudding.
This somewhat warm day I'm travelling a little back in time to something I really enjoyed although not without challenges.
It was typically a few degrees cooler on the water compared to the land which you had to bear in mind in the summer months.
It was something I really enjoyed at the time.
A life routed in the past
Fun activities with practical application help to move you on.
The path may seem to go on forever but only you alone detirmine how much of it you'll explore as tranquil as it is.
Today we're looking at a controversial move within the Scouting Association.
Modern Day scouts does include girls within Scouting which remains controversal and to which I have made the odd post about as a idea because it's simply wrong to take away the achievements of girls who put the effort in whatever ones views might be.
As in the reminder of society the way in which minorities fit in within scouting has changed, for instance we now do accept gay and lesbian people in scouting as (in my opinion) rightly we feel provided people are professional, don't engage displays of public affection with partners in the presence of minors and respect professional boundaries with minors your sexuality is not an issue to you using your dedication and skills to scouting.
Because we do accept girls, those who were recorded as one sex but now have transitioned to the other should not have to give up their memberships. Nobody would wish that on any scout.
The area around "self identification" and declaring to a pack you are now another gender without any transition in terms of presentation is messy because some spaces will be very close to others such as changing or supervision, adult helpers too who fall in this category but who still have many features such as faces and voices that don't match easily self identification as that they see themselves to have the potential to cause concern to youngsters even if we accept they would not do anything intentially to cause harm or distress.
Working through all this is more nuanced than just demanding "rights" and may require compromises all round.
The aim is to Make a bold statement with this vibrant Scout Pride Trans woven badge. According to the site it is perfect for adding to a badge blanket, poncho, clothing or a bag to show your support for Scout Pride and the LGBT+ community.
No one wishes any harm to the LBGT+ community and being inclusive and undertanding of differences is a good thing but does and should scouting be making Statements in support of whole groups?
What about showing support for Disabled People and their struggles or any other group in society?
To my mind there is nothing special in LGBT+ that it alone should get one and in any event why not have a badge about inclusivity in all forms not just around sex and sexuality focusing on our abilities and what we have in common. Discrimination sadly takes many forms.
In scouting should we be talking about sexuality to minors and is that not the responsibilities of Schools through PSHE (personal, health, social and economic) lessons and parents as a child gets older?
I remain unconvinced it is Scoutings role to involved directly in one groups struggle as much it is its responsibility to ensure no one is left behind or discriminated against because of attitudes some may hold and ought to be challenged internally.
It is a place I like to walk in and was where I did orientering when I was younger in school as it was not far by school minibus and our school was keen on physical activities so we all had proper hiking socks, boots and outdoor jackets to wear .
We were issued with a map - and we did learn to read an OS Map too - and a compass with instructions to fins our way about learning to use indentifying features and to be independant.
We also did regular hikes too outside of those I did when at home with my parents.
There are a number of set trails to follow clearly labelled you can break down into chunks to suit your abilities.
I just love it.
Most things start with some preporation basics would include weather condition from which you consider attire and studying the terrain.
