Widow Hause is the dip between Graystones and Broom Fell on the back of the Whinlatter Forests. It was pointed out to me that we could see all the way down the line of trees to the valley below, as shown in the middle picture. Then take another step and we're out of line so the light disappears. This reminds me of the diagrams I've seen of rows of atoms. X-ray crystallography was the technique of firing X-rays at the rows of atoms and figuring out the arrangement from the diffraction patterns. It was pioneered by William Henry Bragg, who was born very near Wigton. It got me thinking about diffraction with the trees. For best results with diffraction, we say that the wavelength has to be about the size of the gap. If the gap between the trees in the gap is 2 metres, then that's the wavelength. These would be VHF radio waves - you'd know them as FM frequencies. But would they really diffract? Since the radio in my house can pick up a signal indoors, I suspect that the radio waves might just go through the trees.
