Open road

The road stretches out in both directions, inviting travel, while the scenery to either side invites a stop and exploration. Which way to go?

Here’s an oldie. I took this photo very nearly 9 years ago on the drive home from a visit to Cragside in Northumberland.

I processed it to this black & white treatment the following week and, despite enjoying it all these years, am somehow only now sharing it here (it did get shared to Flickr back in the day).

A view down a long, open road is perhaps a bit of a cliché, but this image has stuck with me over the past decade for the personal memory of time and place, as well as my enjoyment of the view itself, with the stark contrast of fresh white lines snaking down dark tarmac into the distance.

If you visit Cragside, you’ll most likely end up driving this road. The swathes of heather up here have always stuck in my memory as an archetypal image of the Northumberland landscape, and it’s these kinds of views that used to draw me back when I would visit home from London.