Now is the time to share Dorothy Wordsworth’s excitement at an early sighting of our native daffodils along the shores of Ullswater.
In her journal entry for 15th April 1801, she describes how they ‘tossed and reeled and danced, and seemed as if they verily laughed with the wind that blew upon them over the lake; they looked so gay, ever dancing, ever changing.’
‘They grew among mossy stones about and about them; some rested their heads upon these stones, as on a pillow for weariness’.
Another line from that journal entry: ‘I never saw daffodils so beautiful’ is inscribed in the bar of the ‘Dorothy Gate’ situated just outside the Aira Force Tea Room.
The Tea Room is now open from 10.30 am – 4 pm and the Ullswater Steamers are running a mid-season timetable from Glenridding, Howtown and Pooley Bridge.
And pause to think: Dorothy Wordsworth’s entry for this sighting was 15th April – ours is March 11th …
Cecilia Fry, March 11th 2019
