Today’s Pictures: 14 Dec 20

On By stuartakenIn Nature, Photography
Looking across the valley from the shadows to the sunlit side.

Sharing this post widely on social media will allow those who are stuck indoors, due to Covid 19, to enjoy it. It will also reach more people and, hopefully, illustrate what a wonderful place our world is. With luck, between us, we might restore love and respect for nature and slow down the destructive urge to ruin our environment. Thank you.

The coast of Sissi on the Greek island of Crete. Taken July 2008.
Sunlight and shadow in the Forest of Dean.

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.

18 thoughts on “Today’s Pictures: 14 Dec 20”

  1. Pingback: Today’s Pictures: 14 Dec 20 | In the Net! – Stories of Life and Narcissistic Survival

    1. Valerie and I were both born in cities, Brenda, but neither of us ever wanted to live in one. Last ‘big’ place we lived was a small market town (pop 11,000), and we moved there so our daughter, who was at school at the time, would have plenty of social contact. But we love village live and moved here when I retired from employment.
      I’m happy to keep bringing you pictures of the rural life, and hope it won’t be too long before you can experience it. I spent 47 years moving around, chasing the work. Now I’m happy to be where I want to be.

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    1. You’re very welcome, Lynette. And thank you for continuing to share these posts on your website. It spreads them around further, which is the aim of this project.

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  4. So gorgeous Stuart. I love that you captured the village. We blew it up as large as we could to try and see if we could get an idea of how old the homes might be. I wonder if they have plaques that tell the age and history of the homes. That is what we do here, of course nothing is older than 300 years. We live about 20 minutes from Paul Green’s birthplace. The author that wrote “The Lost Colony” and “In Abraham’s Bosom,” a Pulitzer Prize Winner.
    We just don’t have your amazing history because NC just isn’t as old. We don’t save our historical places like we should have. Love you guys ❤️💕🤗😘🦋

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    1. Thanks, Joni. Some of the houses are a couple of centuries old, but there are modern homes, too, and we live in place built in the 1970s. One or two famous (in UK) people have lived in the forest, and there are quite a lot of writers, artists, and photographers here.
      It’s always puzzled me the way the US seems to knock buildings down and build new ones every few years. Seems both wasteful and destructive of the history to us here. Difficult to create a national history if it’s constantly being knocked down.
      I may be offline for a short while, Joni. I’m changing ISPs, and the new equipment hasn’t arrived, but my current contract ends tomorrow, so fingers crossed the stuff arrives in time, but Covid has caused all sorts of problems with our postal system, so who knows?

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      1. Thank you for answering the questions, I and my husband were very curious. I know we are so wasteful in the United States, not us, seriously. We are the greenest couple I have ever known, of course there are others, but none that we have met. Although all our neighbors love our compost tea as nothing works better for gardens and flowers. My husband even saves every earthworm on the pavement when we walk in the summer.
        Good luck with your system and equipment. I know I don’t think we can actually count on anything right now, except more chaos. Please be safe my friends. Love Joni

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        1. Scott and I have something in common, Joni; I usually pick up worms I see struggling on the pavement and drop them onto ground they can bury into.
          We also compost what little food we don’t actually eat, and all our garden clippings; so much better for the soil. Recycling here in this county isn’t quite as advanced as it was in our last place, but they’re gradually improving the range of items we can recycle. We have solar panels, and generate a small amount of electricity, which we can use, or it is fed into the national grid when we’re not using it.
          The new equipment for the broadband and phone arrived at last this morning. I’m now using that, and have a couple of digital phones to set up.
          Nice day here, but tomorrow promises to be wet and windy, so we made the best of it and had a good walk before lunch.
          You and Scott keep safe and stay well. Our infection numbers here are increasing, so we’re being even more careful now.

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          1. I had to read this to my hubby as I knew he would get a kick out of “the saving of the worms,”. However, he said, “we knew Stuart was an environmentalist because of his book.”
            Scott would love solar panels and the main reason I have held off is that we both want to move to the mountains close to Asheville or Boone. We want a small cabin about 900 to 1200 square feet. We have a bigger home here, well not according to many Americans but it is a lot of wasted space. It gets too hot for me six months out of the year and I feel like we could really reduce our footprint. We would get solar than. All our watering comes from a large rain barrel. I would like to raise just a few goats and make goat cheese.
            Sorry for the rambling Stuart, it is great you got your equipment switched and service provider and all is well. Has Valerie already given your new book her beta read yet?
            We just got back from our walk very sunny but windy and high of 47.
            I know the numbers are not good so please be very careful. I hope your daughter is doing well also. Give Valerie a hug 🤗 and you two take care. Love ❤️ Joni

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            1. Scott is very perceptive, Joni. I love your idea of the mountain cabin. Hope that works out for you.
              We also have a rain butt that catches rainwater from the shed roof to water the plants when it’s dry (not something that happens too often here!)
              Yes, Valerie has done the beta read and the new book is with my publisher. They’re due to begin the editing process in the new year.
              Although the area numbers are rising, our own little local space remains more or less free of infections. But we’ll be glad to get the vaccine. You two keep safe, too.

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              1. We will, thank you Stuart. Hard to believe how many books you have written. You are such a hard worker. With the Covid situation you won’t be able to do book signings or perhaps with the vaccine you may be able to next year in the spring.
                I will tell Scott about the “rain butt,” as I have never heard it called that before.
                By the way I don’t think I ever offered up congratulations on your new book yet!!!! I definitely applaud you. Hugs to you both and we are being very careful. Love y’all 💕❤️Joni

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                1. Thanks, Joni.
                  Butt has 12 different entries in the dictionary. One of which is ‘ from Old French, a barrel or cask’. We generally refer to a ‘water butt’ as a barrel-shaped container used to catch rainwater. Language is so fascinating, isn’t it?

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                  1. Yes it is. Thank you so very much. I always learn things from you my friend. You are a great mentor for me in many ways. Ours has a place for flowers on the top and we plant an ivy that grows like crazy on it. Have an amazing day and hope you are pleased with your new service and equipment. Yea!!!! Joni

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                    1. Another similarity, Joni. Our water butt stands at the end of the shed, which is draped in a very vigorous Russian Vine. We obviously prefer natural cover to artificial, eh?

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                    2. Absolutely, so much nicer to have something natural. Our stairs leading up to the front door are completely covered with Jasmine and the smell when it blooms is amazing. Hope you are having a great day. I am trying to solve a WordPress problem. It seems if people use Safari like I do, and they hit the like button it is not necessarily working. I got suspicious of this when I had 172 views on a featured publication and only 72 likes. On your review we had 92 views but much fewer likes. When I go into everyone’s comments or into unread to read post and hit the like button it doesn’t register. Sometimes I have to hit it up to three times. They gave me some options to try which I will do as soon as I get through with my comments. It is frustrating, although they have a lot to deal with so I am not upset with wordpress just want things to work. Hope you two have an amazing day. Sending you both my love. I haven’t even had a chance to see your pictures posted for the day yet. Please continue being safe my friends. Love Joni

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  5. Love the pictures. we don’t see many beautiful trees here In Phoenix, AZ unless we travel out of the city. We will again be able to roam, hopefully in the not too distant future. Today we find out if the US will stay a democracy or become something most of us do not want. I am hopeful!

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    1. Here’s hoping the election validation ends the idiocy, Brenda. Trump has a lot to answer for; I hope the new President takes action once in office: no one should be allowed to get away with the abuse of power Trump has enjoyed.
      Our nearest city here is 15 miles away, and our nearest towns are a few miles distant. It’s a small village, lining the bottom and both steep sides of a narrow river valley. Only a century ago, the place was a hive of heavy industry, but nature has taken over since that stopped. And other parts of the forest are significantly older, going back hundreds of years. We feel so lucky to live in such a place. Surrounded by beauty, we never take it for granted, though.

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