Ten Day #Travel Challenge: Day 4.

On By stuartakenIn Author, Creative Writer, Nature, Photography

My friend, Joni Caggiano, poet, writer and photographer, nominated me to participate in the “Ten Day Travel Challenge.” The ‘rules’ are that participants post a photograph each day for ten days without disclosing the location, and nominate 10 others to engage with this challenge if they so desire. I’m a rule breaker by nature and also enjoy indulging my curiosity, so I’m bending those ‘rules’. I’ll ‘invite’ a new participant each day, but not inform them personally. I’m interested to see how far the news will travel without deliberate action from me. So, one picture (unidentified), one invitee, ten days.
Also, I’ll post the normal ‘Today’s Pictures’, from the Forest of Dean, as part of this series over the next ten days.

Light snow on the forest floor.
Old trees cling to a steep slope in the valley.

Today, I invite my online friend, Brenda, whose work can be found here.

23 thoughts on “Ten Day #Travel Challenge: Day 4.”

    1. Not a beach, Shyamini, but the mudbanks of a wide estuary. It’s a well-known river, famous for its tidal bore, when the incoming tide sweeps upriver like a surfing wave. The River Severn, taken close to the border between Wales and England. I can reveal this detail now that Twitch has identified the place in his comment below.

      Liked by 1 person

  3. Pingback: Ten Day #Travel Challenge: Day 4. | In the Net! – Stories of Life and Narcissistic Survival

  5. Wow these are so beautiful Stuart, that tree is so awesome. The coastal picture is beautiful and you could just sit and stare at it all day long too. Great work my friend. Love you two, Joni

    Liked by 1 person

      1. You ever think of how much of those roots we aren’t seeing? That body of water is mesmerizing in every way. Just so beautiful and peaceful. That tree makes me want to climb up her and just spend the day. Such stories she would tell. Great work my friend. Love to y’all, continue to stay safe. We are hold up inside, except for food pretty much. 🤗💕❤️

        Liked by 1 person

        1. Tree roots, Joni: they hold the hillside together. They are so slow but patient, insinuating themselves into cracks in the underlying rock and gently easing the crack wider to reach more nutrients. It’s one reason I’ve added to the five hazel trees at the foot of a steep slope in our garden, to stop it being washed away by the occasional downpour, as happened once a long time before we moved here.
          I’m currently reading a book leant me by a neighbour that details some of the work done in the area when it was industrial. I knew it had been very active, but now learn there are 301 quarries and there were 139 coal and iron mines all within the boundaries of the forest. On the slope where this ancient tree grows, there are still the ruins of a couple of miner’s cottages (I posted a picture of one of them a while ago. As you say, what tales that tree couled tell!

          Liked by 1 person

          1. Oh my gosh that is incredible. The amount of damaged done to the environment by coal mines is crazy. That is unbelievable. Yet the beautiful forest of ancient trees still abound. What an awful living miners have, being underground all the time some getting to the mines before light and leaving in the dark. I lived in Lexington for three years with my parents and next door to us lived a real coal miner. Talk about a sad life and he, of course, had and died from black lung. I saw that photograph on your post. Crazy stuff. Deforestation at least in my book through research is one of the situations that will bring about our ruination. Scott just got into something he had heard on NPR where in a village in China where coal miners worked 16 hours a day, 7 days a week for fear if they missed even one day they would be fired. You always have something interesting to say Stuart. You two have a great weekend, continue staying safe, and thanks for sharing this piece of history. Love y’all 💕❤️Joni

            Liked by 1 person

            1. I’m just so grateful that nature has reclaimed the land, buried most of the industrial damage, and turned the place into a haven of peace and beauty, Joni.
              The Chinese government is an astoundingly appaling autocratic affair; no interest in the people they supposedly protect, only an interest in maintaining their power at any cost. Truly awful people.
              You two keep safe and stay well.

              Liked by 1 person

              1. Will do thanks my friend. Yes what a wonder it is that damage has been replaced by such beauty. I know when Scott started talking about it, well let’s just say it is so heartbreaking. Hugs to y’all 🤗💕❤️

                Liked by 1 person

Comments are closed.