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Rosthwaite Fell and Glaramara from Rosthwaite

It’s always nice to start a walk straight from the campsite and Chapel House Farm has the added benefit that I can have breakfast looking up at my first hill of the day, Rosthwaite Fell. Wainwright dedicates his book on the Southern Fells, the book I’m currently walking through to “The Sheep of Lakeland, the hardiest of all fellwalkers”. In what has been a sustained spell of dry weather these hardy Herdwicks are suffering a little. Richard, the farmer and campsite owner tells me the dry weather has not been good for his flock of a thousand Herdwicks who are suffering from the lack of water and parasitic infestations growing in their wool. For his livelihood and the sheep’s well-being I hope Lakeland has some rain soon, maybe just not today.

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Lens Artists Challenge – Books

This week’s Lens Artist’s Challenge has been set by Ritva who invites us to share our photographic interpretations on the theme of Books. I’ve categorised my own contributions into The Grand, The Ancient, The Quirky and The Personal.

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Three Wainwrights from Coniston Village

Before starting my book by book journey through Wainwright’s iconic 214 I had climbed many of them before, one hundred and one of them to be precise. Coniston Old Man was one of those and my walking journal tells me I climbed it on Friday 14th August 1987 with a couple of other guys and the weather was clear. To be honest I don’t remember much about that walk but the 80’s and early 90’s were years when long social evenings in the pub were as much a part of any visit to the Lakes as the walking itself so that may account for my somewhat hazy memory.

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A walk up Wetherlam from Tilberthwaite

Tilberthwaite car park is almost full when I arrive, late in the afternoon on what has been a lovely warm and sunny Lakeland day. There are a dozen or so cars and three or four vans that I figure will be keeping me company overnight. By 8pm however everyone has departed and I have the place to myself. Dusk turns slowly into the ink black night of the countryside, far away from neon, where stars can shine bright. I enjoy a quiet evening followed by the sleep of the saved and the thankful with only the owls and the comforting sound of the newly born Yewdale Beck to disturb the silence.

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A walk up Holme Fell

The day is turning into a very fine one for walking as I park in the very same spot I occupied two months ago. The sky is cloudless and eggshell blue, the sun is beaming but it’s April and the temperature is still pleasant and there is not so much as a breath of wind to rustle the leafs. Busyness has been ruling out any visits north but the diary and the weather have both become clear and my season opener is to be a not too taxing leg stretch up Holme Fell.

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A walk to Upper Yosemite Falls

“But no temple made with hands can compare with Yosemite. Every rock in its wall seems to glow with life.” John Muir

When John Muir, the Scottish born naturalist got off a boat in San Francisco on March 28 1868 the story goes that he asked a carpenter what was the quickest way out of the bustling, chaotic city. “Where do you want to go” said the carpenter, “anywhere that is wild” was the reply. And so it was that later that year Muir saw Yosemite for the first time. Its sheer rock walls and natural beauty cast a spell on him which changed his life and led to him playing a pivotal role in Yosemite’s establishment as America’s third National park and secured his title as the ‘Father of National Parks’.

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A walk around Tarn Hows taking in Black Fell

The unpredictable weather of January and trying to sync available time with rare windows of opportunity proved fruitless so it was the beginning of February before I headed up the M6. Knowing that commitments would be ruling out the rest of the month into March I was hoping, despite the mixed forecast, for a couple of cloud free days to keep some forward momentum on Book Four.

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Lens Artists Challenge – Pick A Word

This weeks Lens Artists Challenge is on the theme ‘Pick a Word’ and has been set by John. My chosen word is ‘Waterfall’. I love the sheer force of nature that is a waterfall. The noise, the spray on your face, (and camera lens) the swirl of vortex air at its base and the power and energy of thousands of tons of water pouring over a cliff face, creating plunge pools and smoothing out solid rock over millennia never fail to leave me standing in awe.

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Lens Artists Challenge – Only One Picture

Mount Everest is the highest mountain in the world. It has two other names however, names that it had long before it was renamed after the Surveyor General of India, Sir George Everest. Although to be fair to Sir George he did object to this typical act of British Empire Colonialism.

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A walk around the Shieldaig Peninsula

A visit to the far north west of Scotland is an invitation to slow yourself down and reset to a quieter, simpler way of living. It’s a place where the demands on your time and the notifications on your phone can be turned off for a while and you can instead, absorb the silence or watch fishing boats bringing in a catch of prawns in the golden hour whilst listening to the tide gently lapping on rocks that are among the oldest on earth. In the highlands you can find the time and space to think about things, to breathe out, or just do nothing at all, when was the last time you did that? These are rare treasures indeed in our ever busy, scrolling world. “We are drowning in information, while starving for wisdom” to quote E O Wilson.

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Rosthwaite Fell and Glaramara from Rosthwaite

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Lens Artists Challenge – Books

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Three Wainwrights from Coniston Village

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A walk up Wetherlam from Tilberthwaite

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A walk up Holme Fell

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A walk to Upper Yosemite Falls

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A walk around Tarn Hows taking in Black Fell

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Lens Artists Challenge – Pick A Word

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Lens Artists Challenge – Only One Picture

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A walk around the Shieldaig Peninsula

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