FYI

It may be that my blog posting gets a bit sporadic over the next 8 weeks as I finish my dissertation, pack, and head to freezing Alaska for the Blessed Nuptuals. I would apologize, but I'm not going to. And I'm sure no one will give me grief about it. (Two words: Rabid. She-beast.)


The Lake District was gorgeous. We stayed at a lovely hostel--the house was built in the late 1700s and we stayed in a large room with three huge windows looking out towards the lake. The room also came with a crazy old hippie lady who slept naked.


We hiked an almost-mountain called Haystacks (it's 3 meters too short to be a mountain, but it sure looks like one) and saw some nice views. There were tarns and heather and little waterfalls and a dragonfly full-on eating a bumblebee, which I did not even know a dragonfly could do. The weather was really cloudy and hazy, though, so the pictures didn't turn out that well. And for the first 30 minutes I thought I was going to die because we were climbing up this trail and it was hot and muggy and humid with no breeze, so our faces were purple and we were all dripping sweat. (Nice image, huh?) Only then we got high up enough to get some breeze, at which point I wanted to whip my top off right there on the path. There was no one else around, and it might have given the sheep something to talk about.


(By the way, I'm so over the baby lambs now. After about the 5 millionth one, the thrill is gone. Except for the cute little snow-white ones. They're still as precious as a little angel carrying a sleeping puppy in one hand and baby bunny rabbit in the other.)



After the walk we drove by Wordsworth's cottage and found some dinner in Grasmere. It was this place called Sara's--during the day it serves cafe-type food like pizzas and sandwiches, and in the evenings it's dinner. And oh, what a dinner it was. I got the fell-bred lamb shank with mashed potatoes and root vegetables with a mint-seasoned gravy(told you I was over the lambs), Lady J got the chicken with prawns in a tomato-brandy cream sauce, and M got the beef & ale ragout. Everything tasted fabulous and was presented beautifully, and my lamb pretty much slid right off the bone and was so tender that I didn't need a knife. Also they brought out bowls of steamed veggies for everyone. For dessert M and I got the chocolate creme brulee and Lady J got the passionfruit pavlova. So there you go, Dad. Traditional English food that was good.