As we move from Winter into Spring time, one place I ventured into for the first time last week was the dramatic moorland region around the North Yorkshire villages of Clapham and Austwick. As you make your ascent on the steep tracks, incredible panoramic views open up across the Forest of Bowland to the south. And as you ascend farther into the Dales you encounter all kinds of interesting boulders, crags, and screes. The distinctive dry stone walls and many field barns confirm that you are well inside the National Park, with streams gushing from the hills and limestone pavement dominating the views of the famous Yorkshire three-peaks once you arrive on high ground.
The smartphone offers an alternative way of drawing and seeing. Even when you're not one for spending very much time looking at little screens, and swiping and tapping and scrolling, the smartphone can still be a useful device if you happen to be without your usual materials. And of course a tablet would be the next step if you was really inclined to using a digital means of sketching, especially if your focus is going to be on landscapes. As small as the touchscreen is, it responds to subtle movements made by the finger or thumb. No app was used here, just the basic photo editor which allows you to make marks over the top. The phone I used was a Samsung Galaxy S8 Edge. Very small compared to most.
Thank you for the memories to those whom I met on my journey to the famous lagoon, - in particular Florentina and Theodora who invited me to Padua to show me the sights of this nearby town at night. Tina was a most knowledgeable guide, whilst Dora kept us amused with her hilarious accent. Also, best wishes to Kalina and Milena. I very much look forward to revisiting Venezia in the future. Even though the days are only short, and the weather still quite cold and unpredictable, the light in January is still dazzling as you can see.
It felt more like the depths of Winter, rather than the start, during my five-day's of hiking across high land at the end of November. The North Pennines is a vast area, featuring the highest paved roads in the country. And the weather can be more changeable than anywhere else; atop Great Dun Fell there's a radar and weather station specifically for studying the clouds, because here you get the highest amount of precipitation.
The following selection of images represents some of my recent travel photography on a visit to the southernmost Greek island of Crete in late September to mid-October 2023. When viewing these pictures, imagine if you can the sound of bells jingling as mountain goats pass across the mountainsides and roads, the loud noise of crickets, the smell of salt air from the Mediterranean and Libyan sea, and of the chatter of the Cretan folk with their warm hospitality as they prepare their wonderful cuisine rich in olive oil and complemented by their drink offerings of raki and retsina.
This is a visual diary in photographs from a few days of hiking and mountain climbing in the English Lake District last weekend. I covered quite a lot of ground from the high mountain of Helvellyn in the East across to the more Westerly mountain of Haystacks before descending in to the Buttermere Valley. It was very lively down by the shores of Lake Buttermere as an annual paragliding event was taking place, with people dropping from aeroplanes and flying off most of the surrounding high peaks before trying to land as close to the target in one of the fields. Some of the participants descended in somersaults leaving colourful trails of smoke behind them.
It is possible to cycle all the way around the Lake District National Park in a day without stopping, and yet despite the modest scale and altitude of these mountains compared to the world's greatest mountain ranges it can still feel extraordinarily remote and wild when you're hiking in the district, with mountain terrain which is just as challenging and impressive as any other. The quality of light and how dramatically the light and shadows shift across the fells here is second to none. This is because it's like a miniature version of any other rugged mountain region. And late last week I hiked across some of the highest peaks including Bow Fell, Scafell Pike, Kirk Fell and Pillar, following a route from Great Langdale to Wasdale and finally on to Borrowdale via Green Gable and Gillercomb.
This is a series of photographs shot during a hike in to the mountains earlier this week on a visit to the central and western Lake District. I made my way up to a fell summit called Allen Crags via Sprinkling Tarn and Esk Hause. Many of the steep footpaths were quite treacherous due to the ice, and the snow on the tops was knee deep in places. The wind was blowing quite strongly from the north, so added to the already freezing temperatures was a wind chill making it feel much below freezing.
Earlier this week I cycled to Walney Island situated on the Cumbrian Coast near Barrow-in-Furness. I set off early in the morning as the weather was set to be very hot, and rode the 50-mile journey on the main A-roads so that I could arrive more quickly. I frequently cycle the coast roads around South Cumbria, and have visited Walney just a few times previously. There is also a nature reserve in the south of the island, where grey Atlantic seals gather and a view of Piel Castle can be enjoyed from the lighthouse region.