It’s there quite clearly in the trunk. A lion, claws embedded firmly in the old wood to support its descending weight. Head down, eyes fixed on, well, you!

Microseconds from reaching the ground, where it will be lord of life and death.

I’ve passed here many times, but never seen it before. That’s the joy of winter light. It’s a whole n’other world out there. Darker, inscrutable and somehow visceral…

It makes you reflect on ancient life

Another winter night for our skin-wearing ancestors. The importance of home and the hearthfire. The power of instincts and their associated energies.

Dramatic stuff, I thought, chewing the last of the cheesy wotsits thoughtfully.

“I wonder what else is hidden in the wood?” I muttered it to the empty parkland, abandoned by everyone except the collie and me, due to the cold wind and almost lightless sky. We don’t usually have it all to ourselves.

Time was short, as we were late meeting up with my wife – who had the car, and thus our fast way home. Our rendezvous was to be the cafe of Leven’s Hall, still several minutes away.

It would have to be ‘scan and snap’ with interpretation over a cup of tea, back home, later.

We moved on, prepared (indeed enabled) by the need for speed and therefore the inability of the mind to interfere with those vital first impressions!

And then we were approaching the A6 road, and the most dangerous place on its entire length to cross! Animal instincts to the fore!

But first, and no matter how late it is, it’s the done thing to stop and take in the sheer elegance of this old bridge … and reflect on how the river mirrors life, ever returning us – richer in experience -to the source.

Safely across without being sworn at by speeding motorists, we recovered our composure in time to compose this view of the majesty of Leven’s ancestral hall. An Elizabethan masterpiece which survives intact – with its period gardens.

-🔷-

©Stephen Tanham 2024

All photos taken and processed on an iPhone 12

ProMax.

Stephen Tanham is a writer-photographer and mystical teacher.