At various points yesterday afternoon on another complicated train journey North I idly waved the iPad2 at the landscape shooting past outside.
Anyone who has ever tried to take a photo from a train with grubby windows is usually faced with the problems of strange reflections and odd angles. I persevered and was rewarded by this shot of what I think is the Lowgill Viaduct, a listed structure. Do tell me if I have got it wrong, I am making my best guess here.
Trying to find out the name of the viaduct led me to this lovely site with some splendid photos about this glorious section of the old railway line in the Lune Valley.
When the train finally climbs up into the heart of the Lake District, some of the tension and misery associated with the overcrowded parts of the country just seems to slip away and float over the fells under the sunlit clouds. Who can be sad when they see a lamb climb onto its mother’s back and fall asleep in a field?
Joanna
Zeb Bakes 
=== How very lovely. I went to the Lake District in January so my visual memories (and my visceral ones, too) are of very cold winds and a stark countryside- beautiful in its frozen state. I have no idea of the identity of the bridge- but your picture has a very soft focus and it makes the bridge look like something out of a fairy tale.Thanks for taking us along!===
Glad you liked it Heidi ! It does warm up here sometimes, though it is cooler generally over the year. The soft focus is partly the limits of the ipad camera and partly a bit of reflection that I couldn’t completely avoid, but it is just like a fairy tale, a tall bridge nestled in the landscape going who knows where ….. :)
Goodness, Joanna, that brings back memories of my schooldays! I went to school near Kirkby Lonsdale – Casterton, where the Brontes went and which was used by Charlotte as Lowood in Jane Eyre. I used to travel to school by train from Newcastle to Carlisle and then south over Shap Fell where they had to add an extra engine.
In those dim distant days the trains stopped at Tebay, Barbon and Carnforth – the station which was used in “Brief Encounter”! Happy days!
Good Morning Anne. I showed this post and your comment to my Dad who wanted to say ” I think it’s marvellous that a photograph can bring the memories of when the viaduct was part of a working line.” He has a keen interest in history and gets very excited by people’s memories of place in particular. He looked up your school and it is still doing well nestled on the border of the Lake District and the Yorkshire Dales. http://www.castertonschool.co.uk/ I know Tebay as the nicest Services on the M6 motorway, complete with real food, and duck pond, I think it is the only independent one in the motorway network of the UK.
Good morning from Oz Joanna – though it is the middle of the night for you now!
My regards to your Dad. How nice of him to be interested to look up my school. It certainly does seem to be doing very well and I think the pupils have a rather more comfortable lifestyle nowadays! I was very lucky to go to school in such a lovely spot and we were near enough to the Lakes to have many visits there.
I don’t know where your Dad lives but I have links with Cumberland (as it used to be) which may interest him. My grandfather was a clergyman and had parishes in Maryport, Wetheral and Newton Arlosh – the latter being the only place I can remember. My father went to school at St Bee’s which is also still going I suppose.
That really is gorgeous countryside and not exactly like my part of the world. It looks very serene and peaceful. And I love little lambs! xx
I love lambs too with their gangly legs and their joie de vivre :)
I was in Cumbria last weekend and it was beautiful. I had not been for many years and had forgotten just how breath taking it can be.
I am going up about once a month at the moment and I look forward to this part of the journey most of all. It is a very special part of England. Thanks for visiting Brenda :)
I used to regularly travel from London to Glasgow, and my favourite part of the journey was the lake district/cumbria part – the most beautiful scenery – whatever the weather. Sadly I don’t know about the viaduct, but now I want to!
It’s such an elegant structure somehow. I wonder if people complained bitterly about them when they were first errected, or whether they were just seen as a great opportunity opening up Cumbria to the train and to prosperity. There used to be a through train straight through for me from Bristol to Penrith, but now there is always at least one change, and yesterday two as there were works going on somewhere. Still there’s always the nice person with the tea trolley and the shortbread biscuits to offer solace. ;)
Great photo! I’m always trying to get photos from the bus between here and Florence, but a truck passes just as I am ready, or I get a blurry tree….most difficult.
Thanks Debra, It’s always a miracle that one can take anything bouncing around on a bus or a train :)
I live in Sheffield so we are blessed with easy access to the Peak District. Its good for the soul to get out into the countryside. Have a lovely time – looking forward to seeing some photographs! Never been to the lake district. In recent years we have fallen in love with northumbria and return to that glorious coast line time after time. When we first stayed in Berwick upon Tweed they were having their first food and drink festival and I got to sample some wonderful sourdough bread with chunks of beetroot in it. it planted the seed for my own baking.
I doubt I will get nearer than nose pressed up against the train window, but I will see what I can do Ray. I am doing my share of a care rota till Wednesday. I love Northumbria too, big open spaces, fabulous coastline, crazy tides sweeping in over the causeway, wild and joyful :)
After the weather recently down here in the SW it is just a joy to see blue sky and clouds instead of unremitting grey! What wonderful views.
It’s been quite mixed but once again the sky has cleared this evening and there is soft golden evening light over the cottage garden here :)
On a bright note.. looking at your photo with it’s wee bit of reflection allows me to imagine I am the one looking through the window at this lovely landscape!!
Oh good! That’s lovely to hear :)
Hi Joanna, looks lovely, and hope you get some rest for yourself up there? (at least on the train!) I have taken some weird pics from the train if you get people and reflections it is often difficult to tell who is inside and what is outside! Random fun! have a good week. x
The underground in London produces some pretty strange images – though I tend to avoid it when I am in town these days. Funny times these for me, but it’s all part of life’s rich tapestry as they say :)
I have been reading the comments with interest. My mother was a war evacuee sent to Kendal to live with her aunt who owned a milliners shop on Kendal HIgh Street. Mum went to Kendal HIgh School and was married to my dad in Kendal Methodist Church. They left the area and emigrated to Canada. Many years later I enjoyed lots of holidays with my parents and grandparents up in the Lake District – my memory is of sunshine filled days and discovering all the area had to offer. It must be the rose tinted glasses effect but I do not remember any rain. However I then returned with family years later and from those trips I do remember mists and drizzle.
Elaine
So are you half Cumbrian? What a lovely story, I didn’t know that :)
Ah, a beautiful spring day in a beautiful part of England – and you’ve managed to capture all its loveliness.
Thanks Doc! Hope Spring is heading your way too :)
Jo, you have taken a Thomas the Tank Engine Island of Sodor photo for us! Thank you! I’m very impressed, I didn’t think the iPad camera was particularly good, but that’s a great photo!
The new iPad has a better camera apparently, but I haven’t tried it. It was explained to me that the 2 uses the equivalent of video stills for its photos, a sort of all in one approach. If there is lots of light it does better than it does otherwise. Glad you liked the pic :)
Joanna, having an iPad and tried to take good photos with it, I am in awe of your shot, taken from inside a moving vehicle! Amazing!
very beautiful bridge, I am actually very fond of bridges, my weakness are the ones almost totally covered by vegetation, forgotten in some hidden spot in the world. Those are not easy to find, but worth keeping a camera in your pocket just in case…
;-)
Me too! I like bridges, this one is disused now by the railway, one of three in the area according to the link I posted. One of the great things about travelling by train is that sometimes you see things you would miss otherwise :)
What a beautiful landscape Joanna and I so love your descriptions of “soft golden evening light over the cottage garden” and “tides sweeping in over the causeway, wild and joyful” – there’s always salve for the soul isn’t there. I did giggle at the image your waving of the ipad at the train window conjured up – sort of a Royal progress wave:)
Hi jan, it is still a beautiful world whatever happens :)