Category: Lake District

Scaling the Heights

As a child, I remember asking the local vicar, “Where is God?” He looked at me, a little startled, and said, “God is everywhere!” I looked around, not meaning to mock him, but he took it that way. My simplistic feeling was that God was in the high places, open, accepting and taking things are they were. My family were Rosicrucians and it was … Read More Scaling the Heights

A most unlikely castle…

James Dawson had an eye for a view. In 1840, he stood on the spot from which the photo below was taken. and decided to buy it. His advisors explained that he couldn’t buy all of that, but could have the land down to Lake Windermere, on which he could more or less do what he wanted… planning control were not expected along for … Read More A most unlikely castle…

Thickening the Plot

May 2023 is fast approaching, and that realisation puts urgency into the need to create the ‘physical’ part of the landscape workshop ‘Water, Circle, Cross’, the Silent Eye’s spring event for 2023. Lake Windermere is cold and icy now, but two months on, a band of explorers will be disembarking from a boat at Waterhead in the early mildness of May. Walking, we will … Read More Thickening the Plot

Let’s go walking

The Swift and Windermere

Just had to take this shot. Didn’t even know it was there until I stepped into the cafe next to the boarding pier for a quick cup of tea during one of our dog walks around Bowness-upon-Windermere. It was a grey Tuesday with poor light, and I hadn’t expected to find much to photograph, I collected my tea from the counter and turned to … Read More The Swift and Windermere

Stories of Winter Fire

Here in the Lake District, colour can be hard to find in the Jan-March depths of winter. So I thought it might be fun to explore the replacement of faded colours – like those found in last year’s grasses and ferns – with a colour treatment that was blatantly artificial, yet suggested hidden fire and life… The grasses above are a good example of … Read More Stories of Winter Fire

A War of Fire and Ice

Late afternoon and a final run on Heysham Beach for Tess the collie. And then strange things began to happen in the sky. Bright sun on a collision course with a front of hailstones. Not the place to be! So I grabbed a final shot and we ran for the car… Only later did this joyful result reveal itself! ©Stephen Tanham 2023 Stephen Tanham … Read More A War of Fire and Ice

Some days define…

Some days define… In this case the cold. The vastness of Morecambe Bay is sometimes defined by its light. In this case the deep blue of an early afternoon with icy winds to match. Ice on the foreshore by the lifeboat’s hovercraft station, clustered into tiny pools on the dark mud. Two small fishing boats – most of Morecambe’s shrimping fleet – provide the … Read More Some days define…

Mystery and the Priest Hole

We were walking through a very rainy Ambleside a few days ago. What I smilingly call my ‘camera mind’ spotted how well the lines and colours of the Priest Hole pub contrasted with the wet and uniform grey of the January light. I also loved how the bright ‘double yellows’ led the eye away into the misty gloom… The ‘lead-line’ of the road on … Read More Mystery and the Priest Hole

Musings on a Silent Night

I received a nice little present from WordPress the other day: a certificate to say I had been blogging with them for ten years! Ten years… Where did they go… Back then, Sue Vincent was our Silent Eye blogger – and she already had a large online following. Persuading her to join the fledgling Silent Eye was doubly beneficial: I got an excellent foundational … Read More Musings on a Silent Night

Beyond the Winter

It’s at this time of year, when the nights are long and the days short and getting shorter, that we turn our attention to a what could unfold in the spring – in the form of the Silent Eye’s May workshop. The idea is one thing, the success lies in giving it form and substance…and making sure that everyone there feels a creative part … Read More Beyond the Winter

Stages of Mellow

I find the autumn has distinct stages, and that these are subtly different on the coast. I suppose the adjacent presence of the sea – with its residual warmth from the summer – has a modifying effect on the foliage of the trees, but this may be fanciful on my part. Either way, as colour fades, the intensity of shadows becomes more important; knowing … Read More Stages of Mellow

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