You probably thought I'd forgotten about posting the rest of the Lake
District pictures. Or maybe you'd forgotten yourselves, or hoped I'd moved on. But no. I'm
determined to share more from this wonderful trip, just in time to
combat the January gloom. I'm a firm believer in the adage, "Better late
than never," so, without further ado, I bring you . . . The Further
Adventures of Andrea, Amy, and Molly in the Far North.
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| We got this! |
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| I include this shot a) because I think it is a funny picture, and also b) so you don't think I'm completely vain after reading a later caption :) |
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| The Newlands Valley. |
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| More than just a pretty photographer ;) I was hiking, too! |
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| So many fells to climb! |
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| Good place for a nap...? |
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| Andrea was our literary guide to the Lakes--she sometimes read us tidbits from Wordsworth's Guide to the Lakes. |
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| A better picture |
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| But this one has all of Andrea's face . . . |
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| Heather! |
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| I'd take that house. |
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| And the boat. |
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| Some of us were a little thirsty . . . |
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| We may or may not have sung to pass the time. There may even have been a rendition of Gangsta's Paradise, but who will ever know for sure? |
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| Mountain Hair, take two. |
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| no caption |
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| Another cool house . . . although Wordsworth wouldn't approved of the white paint--he felt this intruded upon the natural beauty and majesty of the fells, etc. |
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| Those crags. |
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| So much atmosphere (apologies for the excessive pictures!). |
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| We spoke to Kara while we were all together--our London adventure buddy from a couple of years ago (and a dear friend)! |
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| We loved the little gable room at Hazeldene. |
William Wordsworth's Guide to the Lakes, from 'SECTION FIRST. View of the Country as Formed
by Nature':
'The country is, indeed, subject to
much bad weather, and it has been ascertained
that twice as much rain falls here as in
many parts of the island; but the number
of black drizzling days, that blot out the
face of things is by no means proportionally great.
Nor is a continuance of thick, flagging,
damp air, so common as in the West of England
and Ireland. The rain here comes down heartily,
and is frequently succeeded by clear, bright
weather, when every brook is vocal, and every
torrent sonorous; brooks and torrents, which
are never muddy, even in the heaviest floods,
except, after a drought, they happen to be
defiled for a short time by waters that have
swept along dusty roads, or have broken out
into ploughed fields. Days of unsettled weather,
with partial showers, are very frequent;
but the showers, darkening, or brightening,
as they fly from hill to hill, are not less
grateful to the eye than finely interwoven
passages of gay and sad music are touching
to the ear. Vapours exhaling from the lakes
and meadows after sun-rise, in a hot season,
or, in moist weather, brooding upon the heights,
or descending towards the valleys with inaudible
motion, give a visionary character to everything
around them; and are in themselves so beautiful,
as to dispose us to enter into the feelings
of those simple nations (such as the Laplanders
of this day) by whom they are taken for guardian
deities of the mountains; or to sympathise
with others who have fancied these delicate
apparitions to be the spirits of their departed
ancestors. Akin to these are fleecy clouds
resting upon the hill-tops; they are not
easily managed in picture, with their accompaniments
of blue sky; but how glorious are they in
nature! how pregnant with imagination for
the poet! and the height of the Cumbrian
mountains is sufficient to exhibit daily
and hourly instances of those mysterious
attachments. Such clouds, cleaving to their
stations, or lifting up suddenly their glittering
heads from behind rocky barriers, or hurrying
out of sight with speed of the sharpest edge,
will often tempt an inhabitant to congratulate
himself on belonging to a country of mists
and clouds and storms, and make him think
of the blank sky of Egypt, and of the cerulean
vacancy of Italy, as an unanimated and even
a sad spectacle.'
Source: http://www.wwnorton.com/college/english/nael/romantic/topic_1/guide.htm
