Filling My Heart with Pleasure

I am a bad blogger. It has been almost two weeks now, and I have left my usually riveted audience with nothing to read and enjoy in my exploits of these last two weeks. There is too much to write that I can't even catch up, but I will devote this blog to all that we saw two weekends ago in the Lake District, another major house trip we embarked on. Some of this is snippets from my travel journal just to make it easier.


After my birthday, we had our weekend trip to the lake District in England. This area offers some of the most beautiful landscape the England has to offer. We were right in the thick of this wondrous landscape of mountains and quaint villages nestled in each little valley, along with a still and serene lake for the perfect picture effects. This 3 day trip wasn't the usual museums and discover some other little known historical fact. We were seriously roughing it as far as rambling goes. All those other walks over various types of pastureland, and country roads, no matter how far, could equal the magnitude of our Saturday hike. We were walking for about 6 hours or so, and scaled an entire mountain and then back around it. It truly was amazing, and the sights the sunny day afforded us at the top were well worth the grueling ascent. We also read a bit of William and Dorothy Wordsworth's poetry at the top, during lunch as a kind of reflection time. I spoke the "Daffodils" Poem from memory to the group, it is one I actually memorized like a year ago being the English dork that I am.

"Daffodils"
By William Wordsworth
I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed - and gazed - but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

We finally got to explore a bit of Ambleside. Allen was our host at the B and B named Allen was a very hospitable man. He was a very gentle fellow with small, dark deepset eyes with a slightly crooked and large nose. He was from Bradford and Leeds, and had spent thirty years teaching art to children. Owning this B and B was his dream, though it is very expensive. I loved the atmosphere of the place and the close relationship we were able to hold with it’s owner. All the rooms as well seemed to take on a character of their own. Private bathrooms in all, but oftentimes the room wasn’t much bigger. OK with me, with my cozy little nook in the top of the house.

This is the view out of the top floor where I lived of our little Band B, overlooking Ambleside.



Despite the misty wet weather, it was rather warm I found. At no point at all did I ever feel cold or get all that wet. The air was really warmer than in Nottingham though it is so far north. Just walking to the bus stop today on Wednesday for class was unbearably cold, while in the mountains, it was always comfortable walking weather, rain or shine. We took a jaunt out of the village to a farm renovated into a hostel. A beautiful little place nestled up on the hill. We were here at Broadrayne to talk with a very interesting local man to get a sense of the personality, and flavour of the history of this place and a bit of the sentiments of the people. All in all, he was a wonderful man, that truly instilled in me the understanding of the sense of pride and attachment these people have for their beloved mountains.

All the while he was talking, a darling little girl, I think it was his daughter, was bouncing around playing outside and trying to draw attention. She looked to be about Kadin’s age and reminded me very much of him. She was adorable, and seemed to be very much a girl of the mountains, and in fact her mum told us how she had already managed to walk one of them. After everyone was waiting around and had started back to town, I took the opportunity to talk to this little girl. Her name is Anoona and she kept saying she was three and then would 2nd guess herself. Her mom assured me she was four. Anoona and I talked for a little bit, and I had her show me her bike and helmet out in the shed and chatted about Pooh a bit til I had to leave. It was very refreshing to talk to such a young, innocent child and be reminded of their simple joys. Back home I had my little brother around to remind me of it daily.

When exploring Ambleside, the men of the group discovered a museum dedicated to everything football (soccer), with photographs through time. Aaron spotted the foosball table upstairs, and nonchalantly asked while we were downstairs if anyone wanted to play him. We have a table at home, and I was fairly confident that he didn't have a chance, though I am not a great player. Sadly I failed to score a single point in the first game. Aaron creamed me all the way through the second game. I was just too darn cocky and didn't realize I was going to play against a pro. He played a lot back home with some friends, and I guess practice can make you pretty good at this. Shannon....we are going to have to start using that table more again so I can practice up and kick Aaron's arse someday when he and I meet face to face across a table of spinning men.


The grass is just too green, and the sky so perfectly blue, with just the occasional wispy cloud, and with it all good friends to go with it!