in our first day in the house, we spent quite a bit of time going through the brochures left on the coffee table to see what there was fun to do in the area. one of the most awwwesome things we found info on, was for lakeland miniature village in flookburgh, a 15 minute drive from our sleepy seaside cottage. the brochure was fairly battered and said they were closed "during winter", but rebekah decided to give them a quick call, just to make sure... the phone rang out... damn.
before we had a moment to wallow in sadness that probably the coolest thing we could ever do - walk around a teeny tiny village and pretend to be giants - was out of our grasp, the phone rang. it was the owner of the miniature village. who was home, preparing for christmas (it was christmas eve). home, as in, at the miniature village. where she lives (not...in the village...). she said that because she was home, she'd be more than happy for us to come by and have a look around, as long as we didn't mind that it hadn't really been maintained in a month, and that there'd be no chance of a tour. we didn't mind, and were completely overwhelmed at the offer; that would never happen in london. you say you're closed, you're closed!
so, we jumped in the car and headed down the road to flookburgh, keen to learn a bit more about the miniature houses, and the family behind them. there, we found over 100 miniature buildings carefully crafted out of slate, by hand, and by one edward robinson; a hobby that's spanned over twenty years, with no end in sight. the owner was quick to assure us that his work is very much still "in progress", and we were more than welcome to help ourselves to the workshop, where we could see some of the pieces that are being worked on at the moment.
well, the village was incredible! rather replicate an actual civilian village, edward chose to simply build tiny little shrines to some of his favourite buildings from childhood, and from living around the district. there were some replicas that had been commissioned by particular councils and societies - beatrix potter's house being an example of that, but each had a plaque explaining what and where the actual building can be found, which was pretty cool. we did take note of a few to go and find the full-sized version of, but... never did.
we spent about an hour wandering through the village and the work rooms, checking out edward's intricate handiwork, and admiring the dedication and skill that'd gone into creating these perfect little replica houses over the years. and obviously, pretended to be giants and...hulk-smashed everything.
(but not really!)
