In our recent Words and Pictures workshop with Sarah Loveland Photography, we discussed how we can use photos, taken on the go, to record what we see.  At a later date, these can then serve as a memory bank for our writing.  And so I enjoyed looking back at a recent visit to the Lake District.

It was a bright crisp day as we made our way up Castle Crag to a wonderful view at the top over Derwentwater and towards Keswick.  We found our way by a mixture of maps, signposts and intuition.

Looking at the photos, I reflected on how much better it was to take the longer meandering path, taking time to stop, observe and wonder.  Without that, I wouldn’t have noticed the textures of bark and dry stone walls, the outline of Caledonian Pines against the blue sky, children in bright anoraks and pom-pom hats enjoying a picnic or the tributes to local men who left this beautiful place to serve their country. Just below the summit was the remains of a quarry and a reminder of former footsteps that had trod the same path as we had, but in a different time of hardship and graft.

Perhaps there’s a parallel here for our writing? Sometimes it pays not to hurry the process. The way to reaching our goal is as important to our experience and development as either the arrival or the view.