Our Second Anniversary

It’s hard to believe that Adrian and I have been married for two years! On the one hand, it seems like we have been married forever (which makes a kind of sense, as we’ve been together for almost nine years!), and on the other, it seems like we just got married yesterday.

 

 

We have been through a lot in our time together as a married couple. We have had amazing moments and hardships. But one thing I can say for sure is that I can’t think of anyone I would rather have spent these last two years with. And I think that’s part of what marriage is all about – being with someone that you can’t imagine living without, whether times are wonderful or more difficult.

One Year Anniversary

Two Year Anniversary

 So, here’s to our second anniversary. May there be many, many more to follow!

The Lake District

When we were first dating, Adrian and I went hiking a lot. The weekend would come around and we were off. We were young, in love, and in shape. Things have changed a little. We are no longer so young and no longer in such good of shape – though I am proud to say that after almost a decade of being together, we are still in love. <3 Despite these changes, we both still love to hike, although we haven’t been able to go as often as we used to. So last week, Adrian and I dusted off our hiking boots, loaded up our backpacks with rainproof gear, and left London for the Lake District.

The Lake District.

Unfortunately, Adrian and I both came down with the plague on our way to Ambleside, which made our hiking adventure a little more complicated. Hiking is great, but it’s not so simple when you can’t breathe, your nose is leaking like a drain pipe, and you can’t take four steps without coughing up a lung. Even with the threat of death looming over us, we did manage to go on at least a small hike each day we were there.

Adrian looking handsome in his rain gear.

Our first day, we went on a small hike to Stock Ghyll Force, which is a waterfall right outside of Ambleside. It was amazing how close to the center of town it was, and yet, how far away it felt.  (It was only about a 200 meter trek up a hill, but it damn near killed Adrian – his plague was worse than mine at that point; mine would start in full force later that night.) Once we turned off the main road, it felt as if we had been transported to a magical fantasy world! 

We followed the rapids all the way up to the falls.

Everything was lush and green and dripping with rain. The leaves were wet and heavy and drooped down low over the trail. You couldn’t hear anything but the rain and the rushing of the stream. We reached the top of the hill, careful to avoid slipping on the moss covered stones, wiped the fog and rain from our glasses, and saw the waterfall in full force.

Stock Ghyll Force

It had been raining a lot recently, so the water was falling with some intensity. It was magical. The water spilled over boulders, crashing its way to the forest floor. All we could hear was the roar of the falls. Adrian and I looked at each other, knowing that the difficult journey had been worth it. We were hypnotized by its beauty and sat there for a good long while before deciding to make our way back down the hill.

After the waterfall, we strolled through the town. Ambleside’s streets are lined with brick and stone buildings, but instead of little shops and homes, they are hiking equipment stores and restaurants. We also visited The Armitt Museum and Library and saw their Beatrix Potter exhibit. She spent many of her summers in the area and it is where she wrote many of her books. The museum had a lot of her naturalist watercolors, which were absolutely amazing. There was so much detail in her paintings that you expected them to leap off the page at any moment!

Beatrix Potter's sketchbooks

Bridge House!

Oddly enough, after a night of fevers, coughing, and not much sleeping, Adrian and I were feeling mildly better, so we decided to tackle a longer hike. After stopping by the pharmacy to pick up more cough drops and cold medicine, we were off! 

Stone walls lined all of the pastures. They were covered with moss and ferns.

The first leg of the hike led to Rydal Hall, an old manor house atop a large, steep hill. Unfortunately, there was a private function going on so we couldn’t explore the house, but we were able to walk through the gardens.

Rydal Hall

Should have married Mr. Darcy...

 At the side of the house, a little ways down the hill, was a little shed. We walked down to it, wondering what it could be. It was only one room, but the back wall was all glass with a window seat overlooking a waterfall (I know – another one!). 

View of the shed and waterfall

It was breathtaking! I could have sat there and watched the water for hours. Apparently, the little shed was built with that exact purpose in mind. It is thought to be the first building built purely for the purpose of viewing a romantic landscape. I can completely understand – if I were eccentric and rich and had a waterfall on my property, I would want to sit and look at it as often as possible!

A tree that people have been sticking coins in for years!

We continued on, climbing over roots, passing through gates, stepping over streams that had decided that the shortest route down the hill was over the path. Everywhere I looked, I saw another shade of green; the entire countryside seemed to be saturated with it. The landscape was dotted with sheep and lined with stone walls that had been there for generations. Call me a romantic, but it made me want to put on a long dress and go climb a tree with a book of poetry in tow. I don’t know how many times I stopped in the middle of the pathway, turned to Adrian, and told him how I wish I had grown up there. I can’t think of anything more magical than being a child in that fairy-world of green. Honestly, I have never seen countryside so beautiful… It truly was awesome in the original sense of the word.

Our hike ended four miles from where it began in a town called Grasmere. We walked around the town a bit, ate some lunch overlooking a river, bought some chocolates, and then caught the bus back to Ambleside. Ambleside sits on the edge of England’s largest lake (10 miles long) and has a ferry service, so we decided to take the boat down to Bowness, a town about halfway down the lake. Sitting on the water, with green mountains around you as far as you can see – it really was a wonderful experience. 

The dock at Bowness

 

When we got there, we realized that we were a bit tired after our excursion that morning, so we decided to get some tea and a snack. And that is when I fell in love with scones. We visited a little tea room that had horrible service, but amazing scones! Warm with jam and whipped cream… They were delicious! (They were so good in fact, that after we got home, I immediately made scones!)

Remnants of our tea and scones

Writing postcards on the boat back to Ambleside.

Adrian wrote some, too!

Our final day in Ambleside, we intended to hike up the tallest of the mountains, but unfortunately, all the exertion of the previous day caught up with me… We made it a fair way up the fell, but my cough made it a little hard to breathe, so we had to turn back before we reached the top. I felt a little ridiculous not being able to reach the peak, as we were passed by a very friendly octogenarian with a cane and a troop of first graders, but I feel like if we had continued, Adrian would have had to carry me down. Despite not reaching the summit, we still had an amazing view! From where we were, we could see all of Ambleside. It truly was beautiful.

The view of Ambleside

Still looks pretty high to me...

I’m really hoping that Adrian and I have a chance to go back to the Lake District before we have to leave the UK. I feel like there is so much more of it to explore, so many more greens to be seen! I was overwhelmed by the beauty and would love to be breathless there again – for reasons other than sickness.

Highgate Cemetery

I sometimes think that I am old. Not because I found my first grey hair (which I did) or because my knees pop sometimes when I stand up (which they do). It's something much subtler than that. There are a significant number of instances where Adrian and I are the youngest people in the room/tour group/theatre/what-have-you. Most of the time by a good twenty years.

This happened again when we visited Highgate Cemetery. Oh well... Maybe we are just weird...

Highgate Cemetery is a massive Victorian cemetery that covers 37 acres with an estimated 53,000 graves. When it opened, it was considered the poshest place to be buried and was more like a park than a modern cemetery. It fell into disrepair in the 1970s due to lack of funding. Because no one was tending the cemetery for so long, nature slowly took over the winding paths and gravestones. It has been transformed from a well-maintained park to a overrun, forgotten time capsule. It has since been taken over by a charity that works to restore it.

Adrian and I went on a fantastically sunny summer's day, but you could hardly see the sun through the thick canopy of trees. The meandering paths took us through a sea of gravestones, some of which we could hardly see because of all the ivy covering them. Many of the stones had been knocked over and broken, some due to the passage of time and some due to vandalism. The graves were packed in so tightly, if I had left the path, I would have no choice but to climb over the stones to get anywhere.

The west side of the cemetery can only be seen via guided tour, which was simultaneously nice and disappointing. It was interesting to learn so much about the history of the cemetery, some of the people buried there, and the symbolism behind some of the actual gravestones from someone who knew all about it, but there was a part of me that just wanted to wander and get lost among the serene landscape.

Because the cemetery has remained undisturbed for so long, it is an ideal place for wildlife. In fact, within certain mausoleums, there is a type of cave spider that had never before been discovered! 

The inside of one of the mausoleums. (Not the one with the spiders.)

Despite being surrounded by dead people and dilapidated graves, the cemetery was not at creepy. It was very peaceful and quiet. I could see how in it's heyday, it would have been a beautiful picnicking location.

This is pretty much what everything looked like away from the path.

There were so many unique gravestones, nothing at all like the modern slabs of rock. The Victorians were obsessed with symbolism, so the markers were covered with of carvings of eternal flames, urns, and carefully draped fabrics... One of the more unique (and famous) stones was this one.

For any Doctor Who fans out there, I did not blink.

Apparently, for a long time, the staff had no idea that the angel was there, as it was covered in ivy. When one of the volunteers uncovered it, they found this amazing statue. I wish I had been able to get a better picture of it...

One of the volunteers. He was repairing a gravestone that had fallen over.

The cemetery went on and on, but unfortunately, the guided tour only lasted an hour. Luckily for us, there was the east side of the cemetery!

The east side of Highgate is slightly more kept-up in places, but there were many parts of it where Adrian and I were surrounded by dilapidated headstones with no paths in sight. There was no tour, so we were free to wander wherever we liked.

This part of the cemetery seemed more like a modern cemetery than the western side. The paths were less windy, there were fewer trees, and (in some places) there were more manicured "lawns". Despite this, there were still portions that looked like they hadn't been touched for decades.

 It was so easy to get lost amongst the graves. Everywhere we looked, there were rows and rows of markers. As we stepped over and around headstones, the light trickled down through the lace of the treetops. It was beautifully, poetic.

East Highgate has a large number of famous graves, including Karl Marx, Douglas Adams, and George Eliot. Also someone called "The Human Hairpin".

Douglas Adams

I don't know who he is or why he was called that, but I intend to find out!

Lest you think that the Victorians were the only people with creative gravestones, there were several really original "modern" ones.

This was the headstone of a famous composer and pianist.

One of my favorite markers.

In my imagination, this is the detective that inspired Sherlock.

All in all, it was a lovely afternoon, even if some might think it a little macabre.