Abode Sofa brief

Soon!

Ode to Solitude (or the lack of it)

There is no doubt that every now and then a break from life is needed. For the last 6 or 7 weeks i have been running myself into the ground, with various projects and deadlines looming, i became a hermit. Usually when i lock myself in my room its to read by candlelight and get inspired but lately its to film stopmotion and get on with college work. Its not a secret that once or twice a week i like to frequent the local ale house and taste some finely brewed beers however that has now dropped to once a twice.... a month... disaster. The last time i took a walk with my camera (not counting a trip to Finland in December) was the middle of November.

Now dont get me wrong the rush and hectic schedule is part and parcel of being a designer and i love it, especially the 2 day briefs we sometimes get, but almost 2 months of day in day out work, no weekends, no let ups ( apart from a few days over christmas) began to show. Last week was the deadline for our stopmotion video and website which was a brief that did not run smoothly by no means, causing much more stress and turmoil than usual, and by the time the deadline came on Thursday (26th) my interest for the project had vanished along with most of my sanity. A Three day headache, a twitchy eye, weariness and a heavy heart accompanied me through the week along with misery and a distinct feeling of fatigue, which was probably causing my twitchy eye.



Grasmere Water



The work load has eased slightly, owing to my early start on the D&AD brief, but when i say eased i mean just enough for me to have a weekend off (beside doing this blog which i rather enjoy, therefore dont count it as work). I write this on Sunday (29th) and i must say i am feeling better already, however my eye still twitches randomly every hour or so. I needed to relax this weekend and clear my head so Friday was an early night ready to go out early Saturday. Me and my Dad had planned to go to the Lake District a few weeks previous but my workload put a stop to that so yesterday we finally set off North. We normally visit Ambleside, a beautiful lakeland town full of great pubs and stunning views of the mountains that surround it.

However i have longed to go and revisit the grave of William Wordsworth at St Oswalds church in Grasmere. I dont remember the last visit, i was quite young so i was extremely eager to go back. I love 19th century literature especially the Symbolism, Romantacism and Decadence movements and Wordsworth along with Samuel Taylor Coleridge helped relaunch the Romantacism movement in Britain following on from Lord Byron and, going back to the start of the movement, Alexander Pope. The Lake district is by far one of my favourite places in the world and rightly so, i will always have a place in my heart for the Lakes.



Wordsworth's grave



Grasmere is seperated from Ambleside by 2 fairly large bodies of water, Rydal Water and Grasmere Water. We parked next to Rydal water and walked to Grasmere following the River Rothay upstream. The Rothay flows from just North of Grasmere down past the cemetary were Wordsworth lies in rest and into Grasmere Water. It then flows out of Grasmere Water across to Rydal Water then out past Ambleside for 3 miles before joining the River Brathay. We followed the Rothay and then walked around Grasmere Water and into the town. We went to St Oswalds to visit the grave of Wordsworth and his family and got some world famous Grasmere gingerbread on the way out. On the walk back we stopped every now and then to watch Dippers splashing into the river looking for larvae and Caddisflies to eat.

The tops of the Mountains were covered in thick snow, but only from a certain height, it looked as though they had been painted. According to the forcast Snow and Frost is on the way this week so we have decided to head back to the Lakes next week and up to crinkle crags, fingers crossed. The trip was mainly a relaxing day to stop and think and enjoy myself, many people get caught up in work and life and dont stop to look around and enjoy it. I always said i would never be that person who forgets whats important, my education and work is one of the most important things in my life, but so is stopping to relax and looking at what the world has to offer and above all enjoying yourself along the way, their 2 parts of a whole.

The visit gave me lots of photo opportunitys ( please see my Flickr link on the left) and also lots of info on Wordsworth himself, very handy as my essay for Lee involves the Romantacism movement. A great day all round.