Blog Archives
It can stay silent a lifetime. Who knows anyway what it is, that wild, silky part of ourselves without which no poem can live – Mary Oliver Narratives can make us understand. Photographs do something else: they haunt us – Susan Sontag The Lascaux paintings are some of the oldest art we have. Palaeolithic, […]
But now and then comes an hour when the silence is all but absolute, and listening to it one slips out of time – Nan Shepherd I barely noticed this line in Nan Shepherd’s The Living Mountain until recently. It’s a book worth reading again, with observations you might not immediately absorb. She describes […]
The word for this effect is landskein. Over the years I’ve made numerous similar shots but not quite like this. The view is towards Eskdale while climbing Pillar. It was my final big discovery in the Lake District. I walked there several times in one year, enjoying it very much. It was a sombre […]
There’s an idea about nature we might call encounter. We encounter it, without complete understanding. Encounter it, outside the parameters of society. Encounter it, because we see forms of life not ours. It’s a good description, and there are books to be found on the subject. Helen Macdonald’s H Is for Hawk, J.A. Baker’s […]
There are many ways I like the outdoors and walking. High mountain treks, camping wild and on camp sites, woodland strolls and wild flower hunting. In my local area there’s a river I often visit, good for a surprisingly long walk, because it’s not the countryside. I saw a kingfisher there last week, in […]
The Rhinog area is a favourite of mine. The two big hills are called Rhinog Fach and Rhinog Fawr, which I’ve climbed numerous times. There are three camp sites convenient for the walks, one of which is a particular favourite. The charm of wild camping faded for me after I’d done a lot of […]
If I camp in an area for perhaps five days, I like to drive around and enjoy small valley walks. Capel Garmon, a few miles from Betws-y-Coed, is a good example of this and why I do it. The spring wild flowers are beautiful and the mountain views, from a distance, are peaceful and poignant. […]
You’d be so lean, that blasts of January Would blow you through and through. Now, my fair’st friend, I would I had some flowers o’ the spring that might Become your time of day – A Winter’s Tale I’m known for mountain photography but will speak now about flowers. When I do this – […]
I found the Corsica GR20 quite gruelling. People say it’s one of the toughest long distance walks in Europe, which means rough ground with little respite. There was one day where I felt relieved because it was grassy; the rest of the time it wasn’t. Not only do your feet get pounded, but you […]
I’m interested in the way photography captures memories, which are poignant as part of a long mountain walk. The photograph shows a Spanish mountain called Teberrai. A path passes under it or go left, in the other direction, and you cross into France. I’ve done both. This view is when I set off in […]