I've been there

Words often said. 
Words that can be said with fondness or dismissal, in love or in passing.

I'll often have people ask me for suggestions and say "I've been there" when I reply. But have you been there this way or that? in this season or another? have you taken your time or rushed by?

There's a joy in getting to know a place; in learning it's secrets, in gaining a sense of all of it, in coming to understand its moods - the joy of falling in love.
I'm lucky enough to have been to many many places, to have seen a little of a lot of the world, but the English Lake District, and especially this wonderful Grisedale valley brings me back time and time again. Looking back through my journal I've been here in my own happy times and hard times, I've been here to celebrate and to mourn. It's a place where I've wandered and wondered, where recently I've found myself wondering about my wandering. 

Today we came to look at a house here - but soaring property prices now mean that local folk are all moving away, that a house here, wonderful though that might be, could also be a burden, and would realistically be much less of a home than we have now or could have elsewhere. It was good to look and to understand the reality of it, but a shame to hear the lady at the nearby farm shop tell us she is the only full time occupant of her row of cottages.
Everything needs a balance.