VFYW: Pencils And Poets

For contest #333, we find ourselves in a storied land of Romantic verse.

(For this week’s View From Your Window contest, the post exceeds the content limit for Substack’s email service, so to ensure that you see the full results, click the headline above.)

First up, a quick reflection from our globetrotting sleuth in Alaska:

After making fun of my View partner for blowing the Malta contest after having spent time on the island, I turned out to be 8,700 miles wrong the following contest for the same Type I error. I spent a long week in St John 16 years ago — literally a few hundred yards from where the View was taken — and I did not recognize it as the Virgin Islands. I’m so ashamed. In my defense, my main memory of that trip was endless laps around (not in) the vacation rental’s pool trying to soothe my 4-month-old son’s colic. Magically, he got better right after the trip ...

The Alaskan adds, “For this week’s contest, I predict 50 correct countries, 40 correct cities, and 35 correct buildings/windows.” Out of the 54 entries submitted this week, 44 got the correct city — so the Alaskan is getting really good at this.

The first entry comes from a sleuth on the Upper West Side:

Those mountains! Scotland or Ireland? Ancestry.com says that 41% of my DNA is from Ireland ... and that 41% is telling me we’re somewhere on the Emerald Isle, looking at the Mourne Mountains in Northern Ireland. I’m going to guess we’re in Newcastle (though not the one with the coals).

That’s as far as I can get this week. Hope I’m in the ballpark. I was fooled by similar chimneys in a fairly recent VFYW that turned out to be Vegas. Humiliating! But I’ve correctly guessed the last three locations (though not windows), so maybe my luck is turning ...

From a previous winner in Providence:

Heya Chris! WAAAAYYY too crazy a week for me to delve into the VFYW properly,  alas — it’s a good one. My initial fleeting thought was Scotland, but neither the architecture nor the landscape was quite right. The fenestration and general character were definitely UK (or Ireland, I suppose), and more likely western than eastern. 

The slate roofs and darkish old buildings suggested Wales, and the hills might be the Brecon Beacons. The actual town of Brecon is farther away from the hills than the picture, by and large, but for a quickie guess, it will do.

This one sticks with Scotland:

UK chimneys and treeless Highland hills. Fort William, Scotland? I’d like to be there, were I able to travel.

Another sleuth goes with England:

Wasdale Head? I think I found the red herring.

So does the following sleuth — they are both squinting at a small sign on the cottage:

“Lingwell Cottage” is clearly visible, and that’s a common name in this area of Leeds, England. Wakefield? That’s as far as I got while in COVID quarantine before my daughter got it too, meaning I could tap back in for childcare :)

Worth noting that the yellow license plates also indicate England. So the gorgeous hills, while reminiscent of New Zealand, are probably not from another commonwealth country. Maybe next week!

Not “Lingwell,” but very close. An internal monologue from Giuseppe:

“What’s written on that sign? Lingmill Cottage? No. Ungmill Cottage? Nope. Ongmill Cottage? Oooof. Let’s try something simpler. Let’s google ‘England town mountains’, and … oh, there it is!”

Enhance:

This next sleuth gets the right spelling:

Based on the architecture, the cars, and the neat row of “wheelie bins” outside the building across the street, I’m guessing this is the UK. The landscape in the background reminds me of somewhere like the Peak District, Lake District or Yorkshire Dales. Other than that, I’m utterly stumped — the “Lingmell Cottage” across the street didn’t get me anywhere, so I’m just going to throw out a guess and say it’s Sedbergh in the Yorkshire Dales.

The right district in the UK is named by this sleuth: