NOW YOU SEE IT… now you don’t! When you’re in the Lakes, you’ve got to grab those rays while they last…
I was struggling up the final few metres to the top of Skiddaw Little Man earlier today and nearly getting blown off the top for my troubles. At least when I came down around Latrigg and back to Keswick, things had calmed down a bit.
A case of speaking too soon, though, because it’s been blowing an absolute hooley all afternoon here in town too.
(Grab it while you can!)
Anyhow, this picture came from an afternoon back in the summer when it wasn’t raining, and it wasn’t windy, and it wasn’t exhausting to get up here (it’s Latrigg, after all!).
This picture represents a magical moment in time; a parenthesis, when things seemed to stand still and the earth marked time on its axis and problems and worries were somehow less serious, even if only for a minute.
A simple moment on top of a hill with my son lost in his world, feeling happy without knowing why, when I reached up and gently said to the sun, hey, can we just hold it there for a while?
Why do we walk up hills? That’s a question I’ll probably be pondering over and pontificating about until I fall off one of them thar mountains, so we have time here!
The one thing I will suggest is that the main reason we walk up hills we don’t strictly have to is not because we like walking up hills. Stay tuned for more thoughts on that one!
Although I’ve signed the main photo above, credit must be given where credit is due. Full disclosure: I did not take this photo!
I was there, of course. In fact, that’s me warming my hands right there on the bench on top of Latrigg, you know the one.
takes a break to enjoy the view
This stunning shot was taken by none other than my occasional partner in crime, my Paris metro-loving fanatic, my best boy… Léo, on holiday with me from France this summer.
I don’t generally praise my own photos because they are what they are and it’s for others to decide what they think of them and that’s fine.
I obviously think they’re worth publishing here for my purposes, of course, and I might occasionally do a photo critique and say what I like or don’t like about them, but that’s as far as I’ll go.
having its usual effect
Here, though, it’s not my shot, so I can do one of my favourite things: praise someone’s creative efforts with wild abandon and encourage him to carry on like that!
I love this picture, and my son managed to line the camera (my old smartphone) up just right, compose it nicely, hold it steady and click at the right time – the decisive moment (it’s A Thing, ask Cartier-Bresson), if you will.
It’s great, well done my boy, and I hope you keep coming up the fells with me as often as possible. Now it’s time to wake up!
Happy snapping!
The Laggard of Lakeland 
(Lakeland Chronicles No.28)
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Wainwright Log: 7 of 214 Fells Felled / 0 Books Bashed / Visit Log
