#Words and #PictureOfTheDay: 07/Mar/22

On By stuartakenIn Author, Creative Writer, Nature, Photography

To climb or stay on the flat?
It’s a dry day, so the path following the fence to the left will be free of the sometime, shallow, flowing stream it harbours after heavy rain. Down there is the nearest route home, and now, after much work has been completed, that rough fence has been replaced by a rugged, metal barrier to keep the wild boar (and some wild people) out of an enclosure housing beavers. They’ve already altered the environment there into a wetland that will hopefully encourage kingfishers, dragonflies, and other lovers of open water, bogs, and waterfalls. Still haven’t seen the elusive creatures, but their work is evident in many parts of their generous enclosure. Maybe one day…
Alternately, the path curving up around the hill leads to varied forest populated by oak, beech, sweet chestnut, hawthorn, silver and rough birch, hazel, fir, spruce, ash, larch, holly, dogwood, hornbeam, sycamore, rowan, elder, pine, wellingtonia, cypress, gorse, broom, bramble, and bracken, with all its attendant wildlife. Some of the climbs are steep, winding, narrow, and, just occasionally, a little risky when chains of speeding mountain bikers flash past unannounced on their adrenalin seeking chases. But most of the time, it’s a peaceful serene place full of the quiet chatter of small birds, the gentle soughing of the wind through the treetops, and the quiet conversation of walkers lost in their connection to nature.

*****…*****
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12 thoughts on “#Words and #PictureOfTheDay: 07/Mar/22”

  2. Pingback: #Words and #PictureOfTheDay: 07/Mar/22 | In the Net! – Pictures and Stories of Life

  3. One of our national symbols is the beaver and I’ve only seen a few of them over the course of many years of hiking and camping (although I don’t camp any more). They are nocturnal but you can sometimes see them in late evening. They are very leery and will dive at the first sight of humans.

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    1. Very wise of the beavers, Lynette. They were driven to extinction here in the UK because every part of a beaver can be used for something, so they were hunted out of existence, a bit like passenger pigeons and dodos. Aren’t humans wonderful natural companions for wildlife, eh?
      I’ve yet to meet a neighbour here who’s seen our beavers, and I don’t expect to see them unless I venture into the woods late on an evening, and I’d need a torch to get me back home safely then! But I’m happy to see their work.

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      1. Humans are often breathtakingly selfish. If I needed a reminder, it was that self-centered and so-called “freedom protest” in Ottawa. They were a gang of selfish jerks and there was nothing peaceful about their “protest.”

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        1. It’s the violent, and self-centred protestors that make it increasingly difficult for peaceful protests to take place. Here in the UK the current corrupt Tory government is trying to pass new legislation that will make it very difficult for any organised protest to take place. The new laws are draconian, but many of us fear they will get through. What price democracy then?
          I think you were referring to the anti-vax protests by lorry drivers, Lynette? It seemed both stupid and pointless to us across the pond.

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          1. I was following the news about all the breaches of gathering prohibitions made by people in your government, but that seems to have disappeared, replaced by other issues. Is that still continuing? Any government behaving like that shouldn’t be passing that type of legislation, but of course, that’s exactly what those types of governments do.

            Yes, I was referring to the “lorry drivers” doing their so-called protest. Most of them weren’t lorry drivers (although many of them were driving trucks) and the group in Ottawa was taken over by at least two other fringe groups with strong American ties (and lots of Americans attending). The police chief and mayor both dropped the ball in a huge way by allowing them into the downtown core where parliament and the monuments are (it’s also a high density neighbourhood). They were blowing their big air horns all night, hassling and spitting on people wearing masks, and in one instance, set an apartment building on fire (someone saw it and quickly put it out). After three weeks of this (no one could sleep because of the incessant horns) Trudeau invoked the emergencies act to impound their vehicles, freeze bank accounts, make arrests, and get them out, which, in my opinion, was the right thing to do; he actually should have done it sooner. Meanwhile, 3500 km away in Alberta, a much more violent protest was simultaneously occurring. There, a number of “protesters” were arrested for plotting to kill police and a couple of others for trying to run one down with a vehicle. This type of fringy stuff has very little support in Canada (76 % of people supported Trudeau’s decision and felt that Ottawa’s police chief and mayor should resign) but when money and bodies come across the border, they’re artificially gulping more attention than they should be getting. A couple of those internet crowd-funding platforms had to be shut down, but not before these idiots got their hands on enough money to cause near mayhem for three weeks. You’re completely right; it was both pointless and stupid.

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            1. In a world where misinformation is King, Lynette, we can expect the ignorant, the disillusioned, the stupid, and the simple bloody-minded to find reason to create chaos.
              All we can do as sensible citizens is spread the truth and hopefully defeat the morons, liars, and those with a vested interest in distorting or destroying the truth.

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    1. Ah, the knees, Noelle, I fully understand that caution. Just invested in some new knee supports, which are proving a little better than those I previously used.
      We’re hoping this year may bring us some more varied wildlife in the beaver enclosure. Kingfishers would be wonderful – we do occasionally get them at the bottom end of the village where the River Wye flows past. And dragonflies are relatively common, even visiting our garden from time to time. Perhaps the new pond might encourage more this year!

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