Today’s Pictures: 24 Nov 20

On By stuartakenIn Nature, Photography
A tree, broken in the Autumn winds, lies over an ancient lane through the forest.

Thanks for visiting this blog. Please be generous to those imprisoned by the Covid crisis at present, and share this post widely with them on social media, so they can enjoy it. It will also reach more people and, hopefully, remind them what a wonderful place this world is. Perhaps that might help restore some love and respect for nature and slow down our destructive urge to ruin the environment. Thank you.

A tiny islet attached to the coast of Samos. Taken October 2016.

If you enjoy my pictures, you may be interested in my gallery, which you can find here or through the ‘Gallery’ tab at the top of the page.

16 thoughts on “Today’s Pictures: 24 Nov 20”

  1. Pingback: Today’s Pictures: 24 Nov 20 | In the Net! – Stories of Life and Narcissistic Survival

    1. Thank you, Lynette. I’ll keep them coming as long as this Covid situation isolates people in their homes and elsewhere. And thank you for spreading the series further with your own website.

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    1. We have a pretty extensive library of historical reference for the village, kept by an elderly lady who lives in an isolated cottage, TasView. I act as a trustee for the village’s Memorial Hall and Recreation Ground, and I volunteered in a moment of insanity to set up and run a website for this charity. In the process of writing an introduction to the charity’s role, I consulted the local Historical Society and learned a lot about the valley and its past. The whole place was a hive of industry with coal mining, iron works, quarrying, and an active railway. This all ended in the 1960s with the closure of the railway and the depletion of most of the mines. There is little of the industrial archaeology now in evidence, though we do occasionally come across odd isolated reminders, and there is sometimes the brief whiff of methane escaping from long buried mine through a hidden vent. The forest has taken back the land that industry took from it. In many places that means birch is the most common tree, as that species is a real coloniser of rough ground. But it’s a short-lived tree, and the beech, oak, ash, spruce and various firs are all gradually replacing the birch naturally. And the Forestry commission have planted huge groves of oak, pine, spruce and beech, so we have lots of variety.
      The people were mainly miners, factory workers, agricultural labourers, and various tradesmen and craftsmen, and that heritage continues in all sorts of ways today. But, like you, we often picture the old workforce, often with horse and cart, wandering the lanes with their loads. Most of those forest roads are now hidden by decades of tree growth, of course.

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      1. Fascinating history of your area, thanks for sharing. I took a keen interest and did some research on the little valley where I live while I was laid up with a broken foot a few years ago. Home to two gold mines, charcoal pits and kiln, a lime quarry (where there once stood a magnificent mountain hut), a tram line from there to the top dam at the waterworks where an old aqueduct also runs to, the original Huon Highway, once called the Bridle track because it is very steep and Charles Darwin walked along there on his way up Mt Wellington during his visit on the Beagle. He mentions our valley in his journal! All this and Hobart was settled less than 250 years ago. There’s also a decent rock overhang that was used by the indigenous folk prior to European settlement. I also created a website after interviewing one of the oldest residents here just before she left, the information she provided was more about the families that used to live here and their life 🙂

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        1. That’s fascinating, Tasview. My daughter is engaged to Australian guy. Currently they’re in Darwin, but moving to Canberra at the end of the month. His family live in Tasmania so, who knows, one of these days we may get to visit your interesting island!

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          1. If you ever come to Australia, it’s well worth a visit across “the ditch”. Allow much longer than you think you’ll need, there’s plenty to see 🙂

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            1. I’d like to visit Tasmania, TasView, regardless of the potential family connection. I read a novel a few years ago, set in the island, about life on a college campus, but with lots of incidental information about the island. I can’t now recall the title of the book, but it certainly piqued my interest.

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    1. I have a limited number of ‘summer in the Mediterranean’ pictures, Noelle, but I’ll keep those coming as often as I can, and will add a few of the sunnier shores of my home island as the winter draws in around us here.

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    1. I agree. I’ve moved around a good deal, mostly because employment sent me. Now, retired from employment, I chose to be here in the Forest of Dean. Never been happier! Enjoyed your pix of the seabirds, btw.

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