We had a wonderful walk today, through one of my favourite spots on earth - the Cragside estate in Rothbury, Northumberland.
Parts of it remind me of Rivendell - but as imagined by a Wagnerian (which was a fair description of its creator - the Victorian industrial colossus Lord Armstrong)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Armstrong,_1st_Baron_Armstrong
It made me realize again that the most perfect beauty comes from a combination of Man and Nature in harmony - for example the woodland paths curling around the hill (to give continuously-changing but always lovely views), channeled though cliffs and paved with rough sandstone slabs that have become sweetened with lichen; or the 'artificial' lakes which have by now settled deeply into the surrounding cliffs and trees that reflect in the placid surface.
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