Hiking at Rutland Water

It was nice.

We hiked somewhere between 10-11 miles around a huge reservoir that was positioned on top of an ancient town. One member of our group says an old church is still intact somewhere, submerged under the murky depths, since it used to be illegal to demolish churches. Now the reservoir is popular for sailing (even this far into the fall), and fishing-- fishermen are called anglers here, and they walk into the water up to their waists to do their sport.

All around the water are beautiful rolling hills, dotted with plentiful sheep and swans, but what made the biggest impression on me were the picturesque towns tucked neatly in the hill valleys. With the little brick houses poking into view, church spires easily the highest points around, it reminded me strongly of Sleepy Hollow. If you don't like the idea of Sleepy Hollow (I think it's very pretty in every movie, but that could just be me), think of your favorite storybook village, and you have the towns surrounding Rutland Water.

We walked through one such town, and it is as picturesque within as it is from far away. Ivy and flowers scale cobbled walls, pumpkins sit merrily on doorsteps, autumn wreaths hang festively from doorways. Some of the houses had thatched roofs, believe it or not, but those were the exception. Each house had a simple, yet charming name: The Cottage, Old Hall, etc. I imagined this place would be very homey around Christmas-time-- I imagined buying hot pies from stalls, decorating the town hall with strings of lights, sledding down the hillside, listening to carolers in the street, drinking cocoa in front of a crackling fire. Ahhh...

After our journey around the reservoir, we took a stroll around the nature reserve. Birdwatchers are popular; they come for the swans, geese, and other creatures that live near the water. The setting sun looked striking against the black silhouettes of trees, and it somehow enhanced the green of the hillside. After our walk, we went to a nearby pub where I ordered my usual plate of potato wedges and we all sat around wooden tables, warming ourselves up with cocoa and spirits.

I had a dream about the nature reserve 5 months ago. That chalks my deja vu experiences up to 2 in the past week, since I also dreamed about the Arcadia in Birmingham. However, when you remember your dreams as well as I do, you'd know you go through thousands of dream scenes, some of which are bound to have correlations in real life, whether you'd actually seen them before or not. So I could take this phenomenon in one of two ways: 1) as an indication that the mind is so sophisticated that it can construct new places in a dream as well as an architect could in real life, or 2) I'm psychic.

Either one would be really cool.