Me And The Huntress

Introduction

Every year, sometimes more often, I find myself in Skipton, Yorkshire. A long time ago someone told me about the Huntress of Skipton Castle Woods which I first wrote about on Vocal here:

The Huntress has featured in many of my stories, and no doubt will feature in many more. She is a stunning nine feet high willow sculpture and, to me, is a symbol of strength and power.

The music is "Willow" by Joan Armatrading

About The Photograph

I have taken selfies with Huntress as well as pictures and videos in my stories and on Instagram and Facebook.

I don't know when I first started doing selfies, when my phone camera started to get clever with a timing function. Since I first started taking photographs the improvements on hand held devices (as opposed to dedicated cameras) have been amazing.

Almost every photograph is acceptable and much of that is due to the software handling my photography.

I do find it still a bit of a bind, that you can see so much with your eyes, and when you take a picture everything fades into the distance.

I do not think I am at all photogenic and most of the selfies are taken just to prove I was there, but also to share the amazing places that I visit such as the bit's of Hadrian's Wall that I helped to light up over a decade ago.

But the photo I have shared with you for this piece was with the Huntress i December 2024. I love the fact that the ground is covered with Autumn Leaves and in the picture I am the only sign of humanity (if you can consider me human) complete with my Rastafairies Scarf and Whitby Vera hat that I recently rewaterproofed.

The Huntress has almost become an annual pilgrimage for me, although I am not religious at all, but she does make me feel closer to nature.

When I am with her people often ask me about her and I tell them about her creator Anna Cross whom you can find out more about here:

I love that the Huntress is woven and created out of will branches, and the work that went into putting her together and bringing her to us is almost magical. There is also a twin Huntress in the United States, in the Blue Ridge Mountains, West Virginia.

On her commissions page, Anna calls The Huntress "The Spirit of the Medieval Hunter" and you can see more of her work here:

And in my picture, you can feel that spirit from the sculpture. I wasn't sure whether I should touch her, but I felt I should show how close I was. and I think it worked.

Twenty years ago I would not have had the ability to do this, but now I have, and I take every opportunity to take pictures which at times impress even myself, and it is nice when others compliment me on the ones I take and share.

Each photograph I take with the Huntress is one more slice of magic in my life, and because we store them in the digital cloud in is a little sliver of immortality for us.

Conclusion

While this photograph is full of imperfection, it captures a moment of magical perfection for me frozen forever in that beautiful moment. I have taken many in the past, and there will be many in the future, but this is one that I am sharing with you, and I hope that one day you too can stand with her or her twin on the other side of the Atlantic.