This continuing series of posts depicts our beautiful world, encouraging people to share them and maybe even help save our unique home planet from human carelessness and indifference.

Today’s photo was taken on a sunny day in July in the Forest of Dean. I was struck by the contrast between the illuminated branch and leaves against the dark background of the shaded tall beeches and oaks.

The forest contains a lot of tracks for walkers, cyclists, and horse riders. Occasionally, we’ll go ‘off piste’ and walk through some of the mature trees where no tracks, apart from those made by deer and wild boar, exist. It provides us with a feeling of being truly ‘in’ nature, a part of it, rather than merely visitors viewing from afar.

On those slightly more adventurous walks we’re sometimes fortunate enough to encounter the wildlife of the forest, several types of deer, families of wild boar – to be left well alone, of course -, the many different birds, including the amazing buzzards and goshawks, and the amusingly agile grey squirrels.

Butterflies, dragonflies, ladybirds, dung beetles, moths, and many different flying and crawling insects are also evident.

Being amongst the wildlife gives us a sense of privilege, and we always return home with that feeling we’ve had a special encounter.

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Feel free to comment, like, and share these posts to spread the joy of natural beauty to reach as many people as we can. It could help us save the environment.
I post every Saturday here, but also share a different picture of natural beauty at the end of most days, with the hashtag #ourworldiswonderful, on FaceBook, Threads, Instagram, and on BlueSkySocial. Join me there, and on LinkedIn

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A few more of my pictures appear in the Gallery.
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