by Steve Tanham
Even from a distance, it separates itself from the landscape that gave it birth. After two hundred million years, its many faces continue to laugh at the sky – in the defiant way that large rocks often do… or perhaps it is long-lost love… Its act of separation is not one of colour, for the hues are not dissimilar to those around it on … Read More Remarkable Rocks
by Steve Tanham
From Sue The Silent Eye Image: Pixabay “It is such a mysterious place, the land of tears.”Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince “Bebop died. I stayed with him. Said thank you.” He choked again. “Said goodbye. It was really emotional.” The voice managed to sound both surprised and a tad embarrassed, even through the evident emotion, and well he might. “…and then Arthur died … Read More The caring game…
by Steve Tanham
From Sue The Silent Eye A new footpath has been installed close to the village, running for a few miles through the silent, empty fields. One of its entrances gives onto the road I travel every day and I have watched with mild curiosity as the work has been underway. The path is part of a walking and cycling initiative to connect the village … Read More Missing the mark
by Steve Tanham
It could equally well be titled ‘The dark art of departure’, I suppose, but, in this case, it‘s not the act but the leaving which is dark… At the time of writing, we are about to leave Sydney, aboard a cruise ship: the Royal Caribbean ‘Solstice’. We’ve never been on a cruise ship before. It is only happening because two years ago, we booked … Read More The Art of Dark Departure
by Steve Tanham
One of the most wonderful moments on our cruise around New Zealand, so far, was when we were leaving the estuary at Dunedin. Bernie and I were sitting on our balcony, watching the soft green hills passing by as the giant ship gained speed towards the open sea. Just ahead of us was a promontory that jutted out in to the waterway. There was … Read More Waving from the Shore
by Steve Tanham
I take a lot of photographs, and like to share the ones that move me the most. Looking back on these, there is a theme: they are, more often than not, a moment of natural beauty, defined by light on landscape, which could only be captured by camera or poem… so, here, for my less formal ‘Tuesday slot’, is picture and poem. Twin Guardians … Read More Ungrasped
by Steve Tanham
Sydney We are having breakfast at Charlie’s Foodamalloo, across the street from our hotel; the Ovolo. It’s a wonderful greasy spoon and reputed to be one of the best places for breakfast in Sydney – if you don’t mind the simple interior and the washed but stickily-aged wood and tiled tables. The Ovolo is located on the redeveloped old giant wharf at Woolloomooloo. The … Read More Antipodean Fragments – Foodoomooloo…
by Steve Tanham
The Lune Valley is always worth exploring. The river Lune rises as a stream near Ravenstone Dale, Cumbria, and gathers momentum and volume as it winds towards the sea at Lancaster and its one time port, Glasson Dock. Devil’s Bridge, above, is, perhaps its most famous landmark, and was once the main highway between Yorkshire and the north Lancashire region – prior to the … Read More A walk with dogs, the Lune and St Michael
by Steve Tanham
From Stuart. The plot thickens… The Silent Eye * ‘In Mesopotamian mythology a Mother Goddess, with the assistance of a God of Wisdom created men out of clay, mixed with the blood of a slain God. The Primeval male and female human beings were not allotted a life-span. People originally only died as the result of natural disasters such as plague, famine or flood, … Read More Contexts: creation…
by Steve Tanham
From Sue The Silent Eye “I don’t get it,” said my son. “We’re an island… how can we be short of water?” I had been telling him about the shocking state of the Derwent Valley reservoirs. I have seen them very low before, but never this low. The water is no more than a trickle in the lake bed and the villages drowned at … Read More Heart to heart
by Steve Tanham
I am in a hotel room in Singapore. It’s 05.02 and I’ve been awake for three hours. Beside me, my wife, Bernie, has also give up trying to sleep and is sitting up drinking the tea I have just made. Having failed to sleep for most of the night, she has joined me in a plan to take an early breakfast as soon as … Read More Spaceships and Chewing Gum
by Steve Tanham
For fifty years I sought you Beneath an ashen tree And then at last I caught you Hiding behind me ➰ What jests your lips had whispered As I darted too and fro Till I lay down at the wayside With nowhere else to go ➰ Quiet, your fingers touched me Bidding stillness in their grace Made soft with love the journey By turning … Read More For fifty years I sought you…
Sun in Gemini 
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