Borrowed from a poem by Rudyard Kipling, ‘The Way Through the Woods’ is the title of a picture recently added to my image gallery and is the theme for this year’s December exhibition at the Triangle Shopping Centre, Manchester. Kipling’s short, haunting piece about nature’s power to reclaim epitomises the fragility and transience of human achievement, but also suggests that our ancient traces somehow persist and their stories continue to unfold. These linked themes are central to my work as I photograph and explore the woodlands, dales, valleys and streams, and the old packhorse routes threading like veins through the North West countryside.

What is a ‘Sundog’?

Two of the images in the Image Gallery page, ‘Rising Mist’ and ‘Winter Trees’ both taken near Adlington in Cheshire, feature the uncommon winter phenomenon of a Sundog clearly visible at the right-hand side of the picture.

Sundogs, also called mock suns, are coloured, luminous spots caused by the refraction of light by six-sided ice crystals in the atmosphere. These bright spots form in the solar halo at points that are 22 degrees on either side of the sun and at the same elevation as the sun. Sundogs are only visible when the sun is near the horizon and on the same horizontal plane as the observer and the ice crystals. As sunlight passes through the ice crystals, it is bent by 22 degrees before reaching our eyes, much like what happens with 22-degree halos. This bending of light results in the formation of a sundog.

In these companion pictures, ‘Rising Mist’ shows both the setting sun and the Sundog. ‘Winter Trees’ captures just the Sundog against the winter sky.

Lewis Carroll and the ‘Alice’ Prints and Cards

Verses from the following poem by Lewis Carroll are used to illustrate the panels of the Lewis Carroll Memorial Window at All Saints’ Church, Daresbury.

Christmas Greetings

(From a Fairy to a Child)

Lady dear, if Fairies may
For a moment lay aside
Cunning tricks and elfish play,
'Tis at happy Christmas-tide.

We have heard the children say--
Gentle children, whom we love--
Long ago, on Christmas Day,
Came a message from above.

Still, as Christmas-tide comes round,
They remember it again--
Echo still the joyful sound
"Peace on earth, good-will to men!"

Yet the hearts must childlike be
Where such heavenly guests abide:
Unto children, in their glee,
All the year is Christmas-tide!

Thus, forgetting tricks and play
For a moment, Lady dear,
We would wish you, if we may,
Merry Christmas, glad New Year!