Beech Tree, Forest of Dean I missed this feature last week due to concentration on the #MABLE event being run by my publisher, Fantastic Books Publishing. Readers will find the event fascinating and a good source for new books, many discounted for the period of the event, which ends 31st October.This month, all photographs in …
I posted an illustrated piece on Medium. If you're a walker, or you're thinking of visiting the Greek island of Skiathos, you might find it interesting. You'll find it here.
Subtitled ‘Create a Haven for Birds, Bees and Butterflies’, this lovely little book gives practical guidance on how to do just that. Written to inform simply and comprehensively, the book also gives reasons for making changes to what are often gardens artificially regimented by tradition, ideas of taste, a desire to ‘tame’ nature, or simple …
Continue reading Rewild Your Garden, by Frances Tophill: #BookReview.
The Bard, William Shakespeare, would have been 458 years old sometime around today; a veritable Methuselah! Of course, our national playwright died on 23rd April 1616. According to tradition, he was born on 23 April 1564, but that’s speculation. We do know, however, he was baptised on 26th of that month. I wonder what he’d …
These ancient scowles have been trod by Iron Age settlers, Romans and their slaves, film and TV actors, and people like you and me. Puzzlewood, an unusual geological space in the Forest of Dean, has a long and somewhat mysterious history. Formed when cave systems were exposed at the Earth’s surface and subsequently collapsed, it’s …
Guardians of the gravel, but how will they fare when sea levels rise? +++++++++++++++++ We live among natural wonders. Some people ignore and others actively dislike such beauty, even working to destroy the only world we can inhabit.These daily posts are to encourage joy in nature, respect for the natural world, in hope of inspiring …
Massive curving concretefollows the arching linestrewn with bold blocksintended to defeatrising waves thattoo soonmay override a wallbuilt by human vanityin false hope ofescape from direconsequences as theyfailed to respectthe natural world thatmade them possiblebut too late nowis what they’ll hearabove the crashingsea of destructionthey have fed bytheir complacent neglect. +++++++++++++++++ We live among natural wonders. …
We live in a world full of natural wonders. But some people either have no appreciation of natural beauty, or actively dislike it, and look to destroy the only world we can inhabit.These daily posts of words and pictures are my small contribution to encouraging enjoyment of nature, in the hope others may be inspired …
Can it really be just sixty yearssince that dark entrance witnessedsmoke and noise and smellas coal and iron and stonepassed through on metal tracksHow quickly trees and grassbracken briars and bushhave recovered the landand now a small streamflows where once thosemetal wheels pushed hardon iron rails now gone *****…*****You can see a few more of …
Fenced inbut why?beyond those rows of postseither side of this well-trodden trackthe land falls steeply awayto the left it drops to a long-dry water courseright it hides a brook tumblingover rocks and fallen treesa veritable jungle full of wildlifeand the bridge?crosses over a track once bearingcarts of coal and iron and stonedrawn by horseslong retireda …
Tall they standrising to meet the sunlightno shade of pridein their struggle to surviveonly the lifeforcethe drive to livebut oh what talesthey might tell usif we would only hear them *****…*****A few of my pictures appear in the Gallery.And you’ll find many more here for use in book covers, calendars, greetings cards, jigsaws, advertising, or …
Coal in the making: this small area of the forest is permanently wet, acting as a pool for several tiny streams and springs, before they overflow to join the larger brook that drains the valley. Fallen trees will eventually be preserved in oxygen-deprived mud and lie to await the geological millennia it will take for …
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 …
The ground here is rarely dry, as witnessed by the growth of juncus. A little used track carries walkers, and the occasional mountain biker, to a wild plateau that overlooks a railway cutting last used over 60 years ago, and now seasonally swamped by a small stream that flows from the tunnel that leads from …
The day held a surprise, a destination neither of us expected to see during our stay. It began with our enquiry at the ticket office for the various boats that tour Lake Maggiore in northern Italy. Our Italian was basic. The lady issuing tickets spoke barely a word of English. But we were confident enough …
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