August 18: Surprise View & Goodbye
We left Merewood at 11:00am and met some of Rachel's friends still in town for tea. Then we headed to Keswick for a brief walk to Surprise View which overlooks Derwentwater. As I look through all the photos I've taken of the Lakes District, after a while they start to run together: A blur of green hills, blue/gray lakes, cloudy skies, cottages, sheep, and brick boundary walls. Taking good pictures was so easy, I just pointed my automatic digital camera and clicked. Every thing truly does look this stunning.
Derwentwater from Surprise View, Keswick.
Dark clouds over Derwentwater.
Monday evening Rachel's parents went all out for a fantastic goodbye supper at Jus Hus. The assumptions about English food have not been validated by my trip here, I can tell you that. I've eaten like a queen and loved every bite. We leave Oughterside early tomorrow morning to return the hired car in Carlisle, catch the train to London, transfer to the tube to Heathrow, to board our 7:35pm flight to Boston. I expect to arrive at my house around 11:00pm EST, which will feel like 4:00am to my finally adjusted body clock. So much awaits me in Cambridge (US) this coming year. Hopefully I'll be a tenured faculty member by February, with a book and film in press. Perhaps as I'm stressing out this fall I can remember the challenge of Scafell Pike, the beauty of the Lakes, the joy of Rachel and Adam's wedding, the generosity of Heather and Ritchie Taylor, and the clean, fresh air of Cumbria in order to quiet my mind and breathe deeply in this precious life.
I listened, motionless and still;
And, as I mounted up the hill,
The music in my heart I bore,
Long after it was heard no more.
--William Wordsworth
from, The Solitary Reaper