Kirstie Pelling is our GoLakes Travel #poetinmotion, out and about in The Central Lakes seeking and sharing poetic inspiration on boats, buses, trains, bikes and electric vehicles. Here’s what she’s been up to lately.

If you really love a place you can show it by etching a heart on the landscape, making a heart shaped route and capturing it for posterity on your GPS. So that’s what we did in the heart of the Lake District. We followed a heart and fell in love with this beautiful landscape again.
Watch the video, see what it’s like and hear me read my Etching a Heart in the Lake District Poem. Do leave a comment and let me know what you think. Or tweet me on #poetinmotion. I would love to hear from you.

Kirstie.”

Etching a Heart in the Lake District

By Kirtie Pelling

The heart shapes the journey. Like the poets before me, I record my love
of The Lakes. Not in their words, or mine, but curves and fine lines on a map.

Freehand at first. Without heed of contour, or traffic free trail. I trace
Cupid’s shape in the space between Lakes. Before doing it for real. On an app.

I tap GO on Strava, manoeuver my bike onto still, empty lane. I slice through
light mist. Hill at my heels, I feel the ridges and fells. I know this terrain;

from paddling the arteries of the English Lakes; the Leven and Crake,
where salmon and sea trout nibble on bait as fishermen scan the sky for rain.

On Coniston’s bank it arrives in folds. In this flat white light, jetty holds
horizon’s weight, before Brantwood takes shape; a firefly in the dusk.

I inhale the woody warmth, drip-drop the day on Jumping Jenny’s floor
while night falls outside, balancing on prickle of conker husk.

In a smudge of track and a sludge of dark Hawkshead Hill appears,
a last minute dash of hopes. Aching muscles battle the slope. And I win.

Deep sleep. New morning. Esthwaite is shrouded in cloud. While sheep
keep the view neat, a shard of glass attacks my tyre mid spin.

On the screen too I pay for my stay. The heart appears broken
until Windermere fills in the other half with its new cycle path.

This track was once a secret getaway. But today I share the trees,
roots and leaves with welly boot kids. They splash in mud baths.
while I swiftly weave round the seam of the lake; digital doodles
scrawled in my wake. GPS beating in time with my pulse. I bike on.

Ignore the sweet lure of the honeypot town. Catch ferry at Sawrey
while tourist boats circle Brockhole and Bowness like hungry swans.

One last steep incline, unwind at Strawberry Bank. And then back
to the little stone bridge where my journey began. My job almost done.

Searchable, shareable, adorable, wearable. A GPS sketch in dots.
Now the red lines join up. I press STOP. A heart, in art, on my home.

Etched by my bike. The words to my poem. The shape of my love
of the Lakes. Forever inscribed. And downloadable now on your phone.

Etching a Heart in the Lake District Poem ©Kirstie Pelling 2014 All Rights Reserved.

No reproduction without authors permission.

To see the route I cycled click on http://www.strava.com/activities/213951062
To follow this route click on http://www.strava.com/routes/1109355