Water shed
its weight of ice
into every interstice
and crevice
carving out
smooth undulating valleys
gateway to
my mountain paradise
and I could wish my days to be
bound each to each
in pilgrim
ecstasy
all along the winding road
I walk
in natural piety.
© 2021 experimentsinfiction.com. All Rights Reserved.
I am back in Cumbria
…for a little while, and I especially love being able to visit the Lake District once again. It’s probably my favourite place on earth. Sure, it rains a lot, but when the sun gets out it is incredibly beautiful. None of the hills are inaccessible or too hard to climb, so it’s like a mountain playground. But from this playground where I grew up, a gained a deep respect for and love of nature. I wish it was something the whole human race shared. As Brendan discussed in his weekly challenge, the national parks which we sought to preserve so that we humans can indulge ourselves in the experience of nature have been and will continue to be irrevocably damaged by human activity.
The Lake District is a tourist trap, of course, but if you know it intimately, you can always find a place to escape the crowds. The photo is taken from the top of Warnell Fell, looking towards the Caldbeck Fells in the Northern Lake District, where people are still outnumbered by sheep. I always regard this area as the watershed between regular countryside and the natural paradise which is the Lake District. The highest hill on the horizon is Skiddaw. The poem incorporates lines from Wordsworth, of course, as he was the original Lake Poet. Sharing with earthweal’s Open Link Weekend.
That image seems typical, as far as my memory goes. We generally avoided the lakes but would keep travelling and stay right on the border.
I would just avoid the towns in the height of summer: full of people buying walking gear to walk around the towns in 🤣
It’s kinda like with daughter, every time we took her to the beach we would end up buying a new bucket and spade 🤣
I love the poem. I only went to the Lakes once, Based at Windemere we walked to all the main lakes. It wasn’t too touristy, but I remember thinking it tame and green compared with our Pennines that I really didn’t much like at all.
There are plenty of wild places if you know where to look. I like the Pennines too but they’re much bleaker.
I’m sure there are. I hope they stay that way! Tourism is a plague! The Pennines are bleak and bare. Too many sheep, too little forests.
Have a wonderful visit Ingrid! The Lake District is magical in its beauty
Thank you Christine 😊
My only experience of the Lakes District is through the BBC TV Series of Pride and Prejudice. Therefore it holds a soft spot in my heart. 🙂 A beautiful poem.
Oh did they film it there? It really is beautiful but I am biased because I grew up there 😊
Well all the romantic part was supposed to be set there. But I have to admit that I haven’t actually researched where it was filmed. It did look like a marvelous place to grow up.
Lovely poem! We were on one of our special places two Mondays ago , Plumlumon in central Wales. There’s a valley in Exmoor that also holds a good part of my heart.
I’ve never been! But I imagine they’re both rather lovely 😊
Well I’ve never been to the Lakes! Have been put off by its popularity. 😀
If you ever need some suggestions for escaping the crowds, just ask!
Will do!
What a beautiful poem and photo Ingrid. Enjoy your visit.
xoxo
Thank you Gabriela, I will 🙏
🥰🌹❤️
Lovely words and photo. That sky!
I’ve never been there, but I can see why you love it. I hope all is well.
And that’s just the edge of it! I will post some of the centre when I go there 😊
Wonderful! 💙
I have heard the Lake District is beautiful….and saw bits of it in the film Shadowlands, with Anthony Hopkins. A beautiful poem.
Thank you Sherry, it is a place very dear to my heart.
A sublime locale, your watershed — placid in its magnitude and yet awesome, too, standing there amid the visible wash of millennia. No wonder Wordsworth gaped. Thanks for seeing it for us. What is so disorienting to me is that such places are overrun, or worse, blasted dredged channelled clearcut mined built over. I’m reading Elizabeth Kolbert’s “Under a White Sky,” about all the ways humanity keeps altering the face of the earth. Even well intentioned changes yet falter natural rhythms, like Rachel Carson’s suggestion to introduce Asian carp into American waters as an alternate to DDT, which had immense eventual consequences downstream (the fish have devoured everything). The Anthropocene sublime tremors Wordsworthean images like this, but there are still ways to hold and cherish the beauty. Well done and thanks Ingrid –
Thank you Brendan!
The concept of
really speaks to me, Ingrid. I love this little window into your world.
<3
David
I borrowed it from Wordsworth 😊 thanks David!
Your photo reminds me of a few spots in Northern AZ. Beautiful and breathtaking. A lot of rain sounds like heaven to me. 😆 I am so happy to read that you are enjoying your time in nature, made even more special by the connections and memories your have. 💖 Thank you for sharing with us.
Thank you Michele 🙏
The rhyming in this is very clever Ingrid and a pleasure to read, that recurring “ice” in the first verse and the last verse is a standout. JIM
Thanks JIM, glad you enjoyed!
wow this looks beautiful Ingrid.. Hope you had the best time! not sure how I missed it. 💖💖
Thank you Cindy-and don’t worry, you have enough reading to do! 😅❤️💕
You’re so welcome.. If you can read , I can read and i never like to miss reading you❣️❣️
Likewise! 😊❤️
I know.. thanks💖🙏🙏 but today you should be off reading🌷
I am 🤣🤣🤣 the mountains have killed me ⛰
LOL 🤣🤣🤣🤣 writing by default and addiction not doubt. … rest up. my fri what the hey post went in a different direction… so i;m late.. lol 🤣