Bundling up and settling in

      At the risk of sounding trite -- English majors like me know better, but the situation warrants it, I believe -- I shall begin with a weather report. After all, in the U.S. the beastly heat has been the hot topic (pun intended) for the last month. So it stands to reason that your intrepid traveler should leave sizzling North Carolina for...you guessed it, the wettest, coolest summer on record in the U.K.! We're talking Noah-worthy floods and temps that barely manage to get into the 60s during the day. At night the mercury continues to dip into the mid-40s. You read it correctly: Mid-40s F, or as the Brits would express it, around 7 or 8 degrees C. That's darned nippy even for November!

      The calendar may say July but, boys and girls, I've got a fire going in the little stove in my sitting room. I had been fortunate for the week since my arrival with a mix of sun and clouds each day but no rain. But the rain was bound to return, and today was the day. It hasn't been bucketing down exactly -- rather what the Brits call "mizzling," a cross between a drizzle and a mist -- but with the damp and overcast skies, a fire was exactly what was called for. And a turtleneck and sweatshirt for good measure. And a cuppa tea at my elbow. Coziness personified.

      Let me set the rest of the stage for my house exchange here on the edge of England's Lake District. It's a small stone cottage in the village of Kirkby Lonsdale. Nothing fancy, but it has most of the mod-cons, including lots of hot water and woolen blankets to ward off the icky weather. If you looked for Kirkby Lonsdale on the map, it's in the northern part of the country on the border between Lancashire and Cumbria, just west of the Yorkshire Dales National Park.

      My garden, featuring a riot of summer flowers, is surrounded on two sides by a pasture of nice cows, behind which is another hilly pasture of peacefully grazing sheep -- a delightful view to wake up to. If I had any technical ability whatsoever I'd be posting photos, but don't hold your breath; you'll just have to use my word pictures to envision the amazing green, pastoral beauty surrounding me here. Kirkby (pron. Kirby) is a charming market town with most amenities including a supermarket, cheese shop, butcher shop, several pubs and a bakery snack-dab on the village square called Emily's Tea Room. I had lunch there today and met Emily. She's six years old and loves pink. Her mum, Cath, runs the place and let Emily pick the decor.

     On Friday, true to my English major's roots, I made a pilgrimage nearby to the heart of the Lake District, the land of William Wordsworth, the great Romantic poet and my favorite of all time. If I shift into Ode Mode here, you'll forgive me, because the countryside was even more magnificent than I expected it to be! Around every bend was another dramatic "AHHHH!" vista. To say the lakes and hills and sheep meadows and waterfalls are stunningly beautiful is doing it scarce credit. I wish I had Wordsworth's own utility with words, but anything I'd write would sound flat-footed. Surrounded by nature that lovely, no wonder Wordsworth and his compadres like Coleridge were so inspired 200 years ago.

      I visited Wordsworth's birthplace in Cockermouth (don't you love that name?!) and Dove Cottage in Grasmere, where he lived while writing his most well-known poems, including the epic "Ode on the Intimations of Immortality." The weather cooperated with some sun, white puffy clouds and temps in the high 60s; the only thing missing were some Wordsworthian daffodils! Yes, I know 'tis not the season for daffodils, but my imagination was in high gear anyway. The absence of bulb-blooming flowers notwithstanding, it was a great outing and one I'll not likely forget.

      That's all for the moment. Don't want to bore you guys, assuming there's anybody out there who actually read this far. If you were expecting thrills and spills, I'm afraid you're going to be disappointed. This trip is about relaxation and treating myself much more like a "native" than a tourist. But I do enjoy having virtual companions -- like YOU! So stay tuned...

     Gotta go stoke the fire now.