iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Marc Cooper @ortgard.com · 06/05/2026

That third pic reminds me of a Van Gogh. Beautiful. The final one reminded me of something:

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Marc Cooper @ortgard.com · 12/03/2026

Then there's the one who's always moaning at the ref:

Marc Cooper @ortgard.com · 03/03/2026

Lovely wander up Ingleborough today.

A distant Ingleborough from the approach from Ingleton.

Ingleborough summit, with the x-shelter on the left, built for QEII’s coronation, the trig point on the right; and in the middle, a Celtic hut circle.

Looking west to Wernside from Ingeborough summit.

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Marc Cooper @ortgard.com · 01/12/2025

Garner's entry for clarity:

Marc Cooper @ortgard.com · 20/11/2025

I was driving through Nether Wasdale on my way to the Duddon about a month ago, and had to stop when I noticed this view. Similar angle to yours, but a bit further back. The light on Gable was far more luminous than the photo shows.

Marc Cooper @ortgard.com · 29/10/2025

Ribblehead Viaduct tonight at sundown, with Ingleborough in the distance. It's just a snap, but twas nice being out there alone admiring the workmanship. It's a beautiful thing.

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Marc Cooper @ortgard.com · 19/09/2025

Love this, Mark. Have to say, I've never dropped down that side of Fairfield so far. Instead, I'm always eager to view St Sunday. Anyway, here's one from near Dove Crag on my last Fairfield circuit:

Marc Cooper @ortgard.com · 13/09/2025

One of the two rescues my sister has had for a year or so loves to watch the fox my BiL feeds each evening. Despite barking at absolutely everything else, she watches the fox with silent fascination for the whole five or so minute visit every day. The fox always looks back.

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Marc Cooper @ortgard.com · 26/08/2025

Fun times. I managed to get into the wee parking spot just up from there early one morning. Only for a picture. I'd never seen it empty before.

Marc Cooper @ortgard.com · 15/08/2025

Love it down there. Such a beautiful valley. Read a few chapters just sitting on the bench nearby too.

Marc Cooper @ortgard.com · 13/08/2025

From the other side of the fence. Though decidedly ungolden. It was blowing a gale that day.

Marc Cooper @ortgard.com · 07/08/2025

Not quite the same view, but one that came out surprisingly well. The vis was perfect, and I love looking into the depths of Glaramara, and walking them too.

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Marc Cooper @ortgard.com · 22/07/2025

Delighted that all 3 osprey chicks fledged at Foulshaw Moss this year. Pic is them this morning returning to the nest and calling for breakfast. I guess I should call it nest 1, because this year there is a nest 2, which hatched 3, with one surviving and yet to fledge.

Three fledging ospreys standing on their next and calling for breakfast.

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Marc Cooper @ortgard.com · 19/06/2025

Right you are. I was thinking that a refill station at Dale Head Tarn would be ideal. I was there 22 May and it was very dry, tarn low. Rain since, obvs, but you'd still need to drop down for water (sans filter). Also, after High Spy, there's not much uphill, just a long old slog.

Summit cairn on Dale Head, clear blue sky, High Spy, Maiden Moor ridge behind.

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Marc Cooper @ortgard.com · 07/06/2025

From today's low-level wander around Ennerdale, dodging the showers. Sometimes a late start pays dividends.

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Marc Cooper @ortgard.com · 05/06/2025

Not in your league, but I quite like this one from Kentmere:

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Marc Cooper @ortgard.com · 03/06/2025

A late wander through Chapel Wood and over Lothwaite, successfully dodging the rain.

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Marc Cooper @ortgard.com · 01/06/2025

I was up there yesterday, doing the whole ridge from Hatteringill Head. It was dreich, and blowing a hoolie, but as ever, one of the finest spots in the Lakes. (Don't tell anyone.)

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Marc Cooper @ortgard.com · 23/05/2025

Paid a visit to Haweswater, which supplies 25% of the water to the north-west. A couple of weeks ago it was at 62%. There's been no rain in the intervening period. Exposed top left is part of Mardale Green: the village submerged by the reservoir's construction.

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Marc Cooper @ortgard.com · 30/04/2025

Not been up on the fells much recently. But here's a couple from today's gentle wander around Sale Fell and its tops.

Marc Cooper @ortgard.com · 19/04/2025

This herdy – also with sticky-out ears – was having a right go at me on a walk last year. Barely get a peep out of them, usually, but this one was furious.

Marc Cooper @ortgard.com · 13/03/2025

Very volcanic-looking. Remind me of the lumps around Scafell Pike: Broad Crag, Great End, Lingmell, et al.

Marc Cooper @ortgard.com · 09/03/2025

I took two surprisingly close shots to yours on 23 April last year. Fun to see which rocks have moved.

Marc Cooper @ortgard.com · 26/02/2025

I love Longsleddale. Though a wander across the tops is best done frozen.

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Marc Cooper @ortgard.com · 25/02/2025

Here's a bigger clue from 10 minutes later:

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Marc Cooper @ortgard.com · 12/02/2025

Amazing shoot-photo from this week's Severance episode, which itself was up there with the best tv I've ever seen. No CGI cop-out here. Shot on the ice in the back of beyond. Genuinely in awe of this production.

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Marc Cooper @ortgard.com · 13/12/2024

Great work, as always, Mark. One of the best starts to a day's walking. Wherever you go, you know it's going to long, tough and thrilling. Also, proof that it's Scaw- not Scar-fell.

Marc Cooper @ortgard.com · 06/12/2024

I was dubious about the amount of bend you'd given Rough Crag. Then I found this in my collection. It doesn't feel like that when on the ground. Love that ridge walk, though. I've always called the seat at Nan Bield: the Devil's Chair. Cracking lunch spot, obvs.

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Marc Cooper @ortgard.com · 04/12/2024

Never tire of going up to Martindale, especially those days when you get it mostly to yourself. Here's a similar shot from June 23

A view down Boredale from Hallin Fell beneath a blue and cloudy sky that casts moody shadows over the surrounding, leaving a well-lit valley floor.

Marc Cooper @ortgard.com · 25/11/2024

Couldn't agree more. It's a proper mountain, Gable. No easy way up. And this angle says: nope, you're not coming up this way, try another.

Marc Cooper @ortgard.com · 21/11/2024

It's a great piece. I know Cumbria pretty well, and wondered whether you remember where it was. The light kind of reminded me of this shot I took back in April in Borrowdale.

Marc Cooper @ortgard.com · 20/11/2024

Oh, Louis MacNeice's Snow – which I do know by heart, and love to recite it. A poem about difference, which resonates in today's world, and will in tomorrow's I'm sure…

Snow
BY LOUIS MACNEICE
The room was suddenly rich and the great bay-window was
Spawning snow and pink roses against it Soundlessly collateral and incompatible:
World is suddener than we fancy it.
World is crazier and more of it than we think, Incorrigibly plural. I peel and portion A tangerine and spit the pips and feel The drunkenness of things being various.
And the fire flames with a bubbling sound for world Is more spiteful and gay than one supposes—
On the tongue on the eyes on the ears in the palms of one's hands—
There is more than glass between the snow and the huge roses.

Marc Cooper @ortgard.com · 14/11/2024

Beautiful sky. Though I do love the remnants of industry visible from your place – I have a minor fascination with the Industrial Revolution. The view from my kitchen struck me earlier, but it's hard to capture big open spaces on a phone. You gotta try, though.

Open green sheep field bounded, left to right, by a dry stone wall. Behind it, a line of mature trees, of various shapes and sizes, in assorted autumnal colours. Then beyond, a line of fells, criss-crossed with ancient walls, patchily-lit by the dying light. Overhead, thick bands of puffy clouds, dark and orange tinted with streaks of pale blue between.