Looking north from Scout Scar escarpment Snow on the horizon, on the distant fells. And flood-waters in the Lyth Valley to the south. The wind howls and it's bitterly cold with squalls of hail-stones. Light and darkness sweep over the landscape so rapidly the photograph you glimpsed is gone before you click the shutter button with a wind-chilled finger. Ash trees confer, radiant against an indigo sky. The light fades and the moment is lost. The drama of weather makes the day.
Nothing but wind and weather. Wildlife hunkers down but something dark and shapeless flies high over the escarpment edge. not of its own volition- flung in the wind. A raven? Wet winter leaves ripped free, scooped up, flung high? Wish I could fly: volent, volant, volatile. To wish is to fly in such words. Volere, volare in Italian.
Glance across these thumbnails before you click on each image, to enlarge it and read captions. A glance gives an impression of the changing light and clouds.
Every naturalist has their local patch which they've studied and know intimately. It's not solely about wildlife, you come to know the vantage points which work best for photography. Where the escarpment cliff shows most dramatically and how it might be lit, that white-washed farmhouse in the Lyth Valley that might gleam out of passing darkness- a beacon of hope, Scot's pine and whitebeam along the cliff edge, how to use the cliff-edge so the sudden drop is inferred even when you cannot see it. Distant trees caught in a spotlight against the fells. And always winter light on the ash trees of Scout Scar, in conversation, back-lit by a louring sky.
After a bracing venture on Scout Scar - home to editing images. Wondering the while about the wildlife- how do birds feed in wild winds? And water-birds on the River Kent, few in sight as the river flows fast and high.
A jackdaw clings to a slender branch of birch rising and falling in the wind. A carousel figure, a knight jousting on horseback. Carusellol
' I must fly,' she said. Wishing to be gone.
' I flew to New York, a flight of fancy surely. The pilot flew the aircraft, managed the controls. What active part does a passenger take to make a journey possible?
He flew off the handle!
She flew into a rage. - rage was out there in the wide world, like a storm cloud, and she had the misfortune to find it.
After a bracing venture on Scout Scar - home to editing images. Wondering the while about the wildlife- how do birds feed in wild winds? And water-birds on the River Kent, few in sight as the river flows fast and high.
A jackdaw clings to a slender branch of birch rising and falling in the wind. A carousel figure, a knight jousting on horseback. Carusellol
' I must fly,' she said. Wishing to be gone.
' I flew to New York, a flight of fancy surely. The pilot flew the aircraft, managed the controls. What active part does a passenger take to make a journey possible?
He flew off the handle!
She flew into a rage. - rage was out there in the wide world, like a storm cloud, and she had the misfortune to find it.
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