Ambleside, Lake District, Winter
Temperatures have plunged.
Temperatures have plunged.
The nigh persistent rain of November and December has given way to a sub-zero climate and clearer conditions. Much better.
With a bright Saturday forecast, Lisabet and I ventured into the heart of the Lake District and major tourist hotspot, Ambleside. We wanted to do two walks: one, a small circular of Stock Ghyll Force, the other bigger hike up to High Sweden Bridge.
Despite being in the middle of a blisteringly cold winter in the Lake District, Ambleside was as busy as ever. This town never gets any rest.
All photos taken on my Sony α7ii using my SMC Pentax-M 28mm F3.5 and SMC Pentax-M 55mm f2.0 prime lenses, plus my Vivitar “Series 1” 70–210mm f2.8–4.0 zoom. RAWs developed in Lightroom, edited in Photoshop.
Ambleside, Lake District, Winter by Ian Cylkowski is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
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Stenkrith Park, Cumbria, Winter
By the gods, there has been a lot of rain.
By the gods, there has been a lot of rain.
It’s made getting out for some winter hiking difficult, if not impossible. In decades past, the Lake District was more known for a lurking misty drizzle that saturated everything. With climate change ever more present, these days rain in Cumbria crashes down in sheets of massive downpours, overwhelming infrastructure and rivers alike.
Finally, after careful cross-examination of various weather services, there appeared to be a gap in all the rain. We quickly made our way to an area not only familiar to us but that also had the best chance of some clear skies: Stenkrith Park in Kirkby Stephen.
It felt good to be out.
All photos taken on my Fujifilm X-T2 using my Vivitar “Series 1” 28–105mm f2.8–3.8 zoom and Laowa 9mm ultra-wide prime lenses. Shot using the camera’s Pro Negative Standard film emulation. RAWs developed in Capture One for iPad, and finalised in Affinity Photo 2 for iPad.
Stenkirth Park, Cumbria, Winter by Ian Cylkowski is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
We followed the Northern Viaduct trail towards the village of Hartley, the trees now bare. Winter afternoon light showed the way forward.
From atop Podgill Viaduct there are excellent views all the way to the Northern Pennines. Their summits never escaped the clouds.
Kirkby Stephen’s always a pleasure to visit. We stopped for lunch and a potter around some of the charity shops, before relocating the River Eden for the return stretch of the walk.
Quintessential British quirkiness or a scene of horror? You decide!
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Kendal Town, Cumbria, Winter
A new storm has arrived on our shores.
A new storm has arrived on our shores.
Storm Cowrie, like Storm Arwen, has not brought much in the way of rain (at least here in Cumbria) but definitely in terms of wind. There’s already been recordings of 140+ mph winds on the peaks of the Cairngorms in Scotland.
Here in Cumbria, we’ve had gusts of 50–60 mph winds with the occasional spell of mizzle. No peak climbing for us today. Instead, after a lazy lie in, we enjoyed a brisk and lengthy walk around the place we call home: Kendal, the Auld Grey Town.
All photos taken on my Fujifilm X-T2 using my Fujinon 23mm f/2.0 lens. Shot using the Velvia film simulation, edited in Lightroom, and finished in Darkroom.
Kirkoswald, Cumbria, Winter
Welcome to the ancient village of Kirkoswald.
Welcome to the ancient village of Kirkoswald.
The day ahead looked to be rather changeable, with unpredictable downpours combined with gusty winds. Our best bet was to head to Northern Cumbria. So why not spend a day with Dad?
We all ventured to Kirkoswald for a gentle stroll around the area. The village is timeworn, with many buildings still standing since the 1600s and 1700s. Even older—to the south of the village—is St. Oswald’s Church, with parts of it dating back to the 12th century. The church is, in fact, where the village gets its name: “Kirk” is the Old Norse word for “church”. It is thought that the body of Saint Oswald, King of Northumbria, was taken through the village.
Southwest of the village is Eden Bridge, a beautiful red sandstone construction. It dates from 1762, with repairs made in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Thankfully the day was largely cooperative, weather-wise, and we all enjoyed some lovely photography walking around this ancient parish.
All photos shot on my Fujifilm X-T2 using my three prime lenses: a Fujinon 23mm f/2.0, a Laowa 9mm f/2.8, and an adapted Pentax SMC 55mm f/2.0. All images 95% made in-camera using Øyvind Nordhagen’s Modern Documentary Fujifilm recipe, with cropping and framing in Pixelmator and Darkroom.
Berwick-upon-Tweed, Northumberland, Summer
Here’s the final collection of work from our week-long summer jaunt around Northumberland.
Here’s the final collection of work from our week-long summer jaunt around Northumberland.
Berwick-upon-Tweed is a town steeped in history and filled with curiosities. It’s England’s northernmost town, right in the northeastern corner of the country. In fact, it’s slightly further north than Copenhagen in Denmark as well as the southern tip of Sweden.
Berwick’s name comes from the Old English berewíc, meaning “corn/barley farm”, which I guess gives you an idea of the town’s origins. During a period of about 400 years, Berwick changed hands between England and Scotland a dozen times or so. Richard of Gloucester retook Berwick for England for the last time in 1482. More than 200 years later, the Kingdom of Scotland joined the Kingdom of England in 1707, forming the Kingdom of Great Britain, and ending the border quarrelling between the nations.
A persistent legend exists about the town “technically” being at war with Russia. The myth goes that because Berwick had changed hands several times, it was regarded as a special, separate entity, sometimes referred to in proclamations as "England, Scotland and the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed".
For the declaration of the Crimean War against Russia in 1853, Queen Victoria supposedly signed the proclamation as "Victoria, Queen of Great Britain, Ireland, Berwick-upon-Tweed and all British Dominions". When the Treaty of Paris was signed to conclude the war, "Berwick-upon-Tweed" was left out. This meant that, supposedly, one of Britain's smallest towns was officially at war with one of the world's largest powers – and the conflict extended by the lack of a peace treaty for over a century.
In reality, Berwick-upon-Tweed was not mentioned in either the declaration of war or the final peace treaty, and Berwick-upon-Tweed was legally part of the United Kingdom for both.
Regardless, the town is fascinating and you can feel the dual-nationality personality of the place. During our wandering, a sea fret obscured most of the coastline, lending a misty foggy atmosphere to our photography.
All photos shot on my Fujifilm X-T2 using my three prime lenses: a Samyang 35mm f/1.2, a Laowa 9mm f/2.8, and an adapted Pentax SMC 55mm f/2.0. Developed using RNI Film’s Astia 100f profile.
Lancaster Canal’s “Northern Reaches”, Cumbria, Spring
Over the years I’ve learned that the UK’s canal system is fascinating.
Over the years I’ve learned that the UK’s canal system is fascinating.
Built primarily as a means to quicky transport raw materials and goods between major manufacturing towns and cities, these days the UK’s canals are largely used for leisure and tourism purposes.
Lancaster Canal was originally proposed in the mid-18th century as a way to link up the prosperous port of Lancaster with the growing port of Liverpool. Ships delivering goods between the Old and New Worlds (Europe and the Americas respectively) were getting bigger, and navigating the tricky Lune Estuary into Lancaster was becoming increasingly problematic.
In 1819 the new Lancaster Canal section between Preston and Kendal was completed, but never linked via the waterways towards Wigan where all the coal came from (a “temporary” tramroad was constructed that linked Preston to Walton Summit, 5-miles south of Preston, from which the canal continued to Wigan. Eventually the tramroad was made permanent). Lancaster Canal flourished, mostly transporting coal from the Wigan area northwards, and moving wool and limestone from Kendal southwards.
This domination ended with the advent of the railways, particularly the Lancaster–Carlisle line as it promised the transportation of goods beyond Kendal. By 1885 the Lancaster Canal Company ceased to exist and the railway line was bought by London & North Western Railway Company.
The railways themselves then came under threat with the advent of cars and roads. By 1944 canal traffic to Kendal ended, the section between Stainton and Kendal was gradually dewatered, and the last two miles of the canal in Kendal was filled in. During the 1960s the development of the M6 motorway north of Carnforth split the Northern Reaches of Lancaster Canal, which terminated Lancaster Canal at Tewitfield and left the remaining unlinked sections of the canal to be reclaimed by nature.
Lisabet and I recently explored a small section of the Northern Reaches of Lancaster Canal via its old towpath; from Crooklands at Millness Bridge to Duke’s Bridge right underneath the imposing stature of Farleton Fell. It’s fascinating to trace the old route of the canal, the places where it’s been cut off from the main canal system, and to observe the ways nature has been reclaiming the waterway.
All photos shot on a Fujifilm X-T2 with a 16–50mm f/3.5–5.6 lens, using a customised Classic Chrome film simulation.