Tag: Lake Windermere

Sunday’s sojourn – Edges of Ambleside

Waterhead to Ambleside; it’s a walk we do often. We park the car near the ferry point in Waterhead and do the thirty-minute stroll into the town. Leaving Waterhead, we hug the coast of Lake Windermere by cutting through Borran’s Park – a place unseen by many visitors, who hike by on the road, not realising that one of the best views of Windermere … Read More Sunday’s sojourn – Edges of Ambleside

The soft mists of Windermere

February has few attractions, other than it gets us to March, the prospect of Easter, and a definite change in the light. But, here on Lake Windermere, February does produce some wonderful morning mists… Boats slide gracefully into view, with a mystery and elegance that no digital effect can produce. There is also a quality of silence… like no other season. As though everything … Read More The soft mists of Windermere

The nature of fading colour

©Stephen Tanham 2023 Stephen Tanham is a writer-photographer and mystical teacher. He is the founding Director of the Silent Eye, which offers a mentored, journal-based journey from personality to the awakening of realised Self and its world of Being. http://www.thesilenteye.co.uk and http://www.suningemini.blog

Begun

©Stephen Tanham 2023 Stephen Tanham is a writer, mystical teacher and Director of the Silent Eye, a correspondence-based journey through the forest of personality to the dawn of Being. http://www.thesilenteye.co.uk and http://www.suningemini.blog (On the back of the card, partly rubbed out, it says in pencil: inclined to irreverence and humour… )

The tranquility of oars

I used to row whenever I could. I found the action joyful and loved the intake of extra oxygen surging around my bloodstream. The feeling of propelling yourself across calm water is a meditative experience filled with sensory delights: the ‘chump’ of the oars breaking the water’s surface tension; the accelerating prow’s quiet roar as it fights the clinging liquid, parting it like a … Read More The tranquility of oars

Water-Circle+Cross (5-End) Gummer’s How

There is always a poignancy about meeting up on the final day of one of the Silent Eye weekends. So much has been shared that it seems impossible that the beginning was only two days before. Everyone arrives ready to depart at the end of the morning, or – if they have the luxury of another hour or two – at the end of … Read More Water-Circle+Cross (5-End) Gummer’s How

Where Seagulls Dare

Didn’t know they were there until I was reviewing the photos later – the seagulls. A whole flock of them whirling overhead, back right of shot; unseen but brightly present… Fell Foot Park on the south-eastern tip of Windermere. It’s a National Trust estate with a delightful walk in a figure of eight that takes you away from the final basin of the lake … Read More Where Seagulls Dare

Water-Circle+Cross (5) The Wray home?

Wray Castle is an imposing neo-gothic building on the north-western shores of Lake Windermere. It’s not a real castle, but looks very much like one, and was crafted according to authentic historical plans. It was built in 1840 for a retired surgeon from Liverpool, James Dawson, who also commissioned Wray Church on the same estate. He used his wealthy wife’s fortune to create it, … Read More Water-Circle+Cross (5) The Wray home?

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Water-Circle+Cross (4) in the realm of the sky-god

There is a feeling – as Lake Windermere falls away below – that you are leaving behind one realm and entering another – one dominated by a sky-god. Within minutes we were climbing strongly, part way up the road that snakes over the hill and down to Hawkshead. Fed by the traffic from the chain-link ferry, it climbs steeply, twisting and turning its way … Read More Water-Circle+Cross (4) in the realm of the sky-god

Water-Circle+Cross (3) Roof of the World

**** Author’s note ***** For some obscure technical reason, this post failed to publish last week here on Sun in Gemini… and I’ve only just noticed. It did publish on the Silent Eye. For completeness, and ahead of the publication of the next part here on Thursday, I’m sending it to the printers, now! The Saturday morning of the Silent Eye’s 2023 ‘walking workshop’ … Read More Water-Circle+Cross (3) Roof of the World

Water-Circle+Cross (2) “… a spell that changed my life.”

In 1930, a 23 year old accountant from Blackburn arrived by train in the small town of Windermere, high above the lake that shares its name. He asked the way to the ancient path that climbed from the edge of the main road (what is now the busy A591) and, fastening his battered tweed jacket against the stiff breeze, strode up to the peak. … Read More Water-Circle+Cross (2) “… a spell that changed my life.”

#Phoetry – Stone Fortress Mind

Beneath the skies of blue that ache with white-kissed beauty Beside the meadows’ deeper green that brightens every day Beyond the water’s vastness blown by breezes on a million waves She waits for him to end his stone-faced exile. #Phoetry is a hashtag amalgamation of the words Photography and Poetry, a form of visual and poetic communication. ©Stephen Tanham 2023 Stephen Tanham is a … Read More #Phoetry – Stone Fortress Mind