I’ve found the location of my retirement home…

You know, it’s funny, because even though I knew we were taking a trip to the Lake District in northern England, I was still surprised when confronted with an actual lake.  I guess I was expecting something sort of muddy, swampy, perhaps a bit underwhelming… but no.  Windermere lake was looking like a dime when we drove past.  The sun was out (a pretty rare sight overall on this trip), the lake sparkled.  Boats sailed past lazily with white sails.  The town of Ambleside is super cute and just feels cozy.  It was pretty great, and my new life goal is to retire there someday. 

             

A view from outside our hostel in Ambleside 

(Sketch from a hike)

  We did so many great things on this particular trip!  Our first stop was the home of the Brontes.  Turns out, their story is pretty tragic- all 6 kids died before reaching middle age, some didn’t even reach adolescence.  I did get a copy of Jane Eyre at the Bronte parsonage- it’s got a stamp proving that it was bought there.  There’s even a little sort of town built around where the family used to live. 

Next stop was Fountain Abbey.  Because I have already written an entire blog post on the subject of living out my Zelda fantasy at a ruined abbey, I won’t go into detail about how COMPLETELY AMAZING it was… But I will say that at this place, I got to climb all over the ruins, through windows, hopping across stumps of columns, scaling walls… it’s the best jungle gym ever. 

(A cool bridge in the Abbey ruins)

(Me in my element)

(Emma and I with some flowers at the Abbey)

Hilltop Farm, home of author/illustrator Beatrix Potter was another one of our pit stops.  We started our pilgrimage from the bus up to the farm, walking through fields and trees.  It took a bit to get up there- it didn’t’ seem super accessible by bus or car; or perhaps our instructors thought we could use some exercise.  Either way, we walked up to Hilltop and got to see the area that inspired Potter’s famous children’s books.  My favorite part of the experience was that there were small mice that were carefully placed around the house in inconspicuous areas.  It made it seem like there were cute anthropomorphic animals that really did live on Hilltop!

(Cute mouse in Beatrix's house)

So… what exactly do an extremely influential author, an ancient abbey, and the place that inspired Peter Rabbit all have in common?

Nature! All three of these three things have been shaped by the natural environment in one way or another, and continue to exert influence over the surrounding area.  For the Brontes, who all grew up with access to the moors, the English countryside captured their imaginations.  In all their books, especially Wuthering Heights (which I haven’t yet read but also have a copy of now), the wildness of the landscape fed their minds with fantasy and, I suspect, a sense of the sublime.  The Bronte’s novels all have a touch of darkness in them, which fits into the Romantic notion of sublime fear that is closely tied to nature.  Having been to part of the hills around their home, I can see how the wild, expansive area would leave an impression on them as writers.  I kind of wish I had grown up having the ability to play in the moors myself. 

Fountain Abbey is also tied to the Romantic notion of nature.  It’s not Tintern Abbey, which was made famous by Wordsworth as a Romantic ideal (I would argue that it’s an improvement over Tintern, but maybe that’s just me).  However, it’s pretty similar.  It’s a huge old ruin that’s been overgrown with vegetation, a reminder that great human achievement can still be overcome by time and nature.  The mortality exhibited by the Abbey makes it sublime, but it’s also super gorgeous to look at.  I’d say the combination of the two makes it “picturesque.” Nature has reclaimed the Abbey, but in a way the Abbey has reclaimed nature.  Fountain Abbey is a part of the National Trust, a branch of the government that focuses on conservation of historical and natural areas.  If it weren’t for the existence of the Abbey, perhaps the green hills would now be the location of a road and maybe a Tesco. It’s something to think about.

(Sketch of the Abbey)

Beatrix Potter, whose beloved characters live among the local gardens and grassy knolls of Hilltop, was a huge supporter of the National Trust and acquired a lot of land which she left to the Trust at the end of her life.  I remember that the people working at her house said that she wanted it to not being a museum, but look more as if she still lived there.  It was important to her to have the area remain unchanged, preserved.  I’m glad that she and so many others did so, as it allowed me to see England as it used to be, and how amazing farmland, forests, and lakes can be.

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So fun story! Ali B. and I were walking back from Hilltop to a town called Hawkshead and we were more or less keeping pace with an older woman.  Somewhere along the way Ali started talking to her and we found out that her name is Sumi was on a vacation and was from Osaka, Japan.  I’ve always wanted to go to Japan, and I think it’s really cool that she ventured out here to England on her own.  Her English was good but it was hard to understand her at times.  We met Christian and Emma L., and she said that she was feeling tired and wanted to rest somewhere. We ended up in a pub and she got a pint of beer and bought us some sodas.  Turns out she’s a fan of Taylor Swift and the song Sway by the Pussycat Dolls.  After that, we tried to help her find her way back to Ambleside.  We saw her off to a bus and then, sadly, she left and I’ll probably never hear from her again.  Meeting new people fleetingly is really interesting, how they can enter and leave your life.  I’ve met so many people on this trip, and some I may not really talk to afterward very much; some I might be lifelong friends with.  I guess I’ll just have to see 😊.

(From left to right: Ali, Sumi my BFF, Christian, Me, and Emma)

(Us inside a pub.  Good times, good times...)