I just posted this piece to Medium. In a forest criss-crossed by tracks and trails of many different sorts, three types of users enter for their exercise, entertainment, and escape from the troubles of the world. Pedestrians vary from the agile runner in search of challenges, through dog walkers exercising their pets, groups sharing the …
176 pages.22 modern folk tales. Alan Rusbridger, former editor of The Guardian and now editor of Prospect magazine remarks, ‘These stories matter because they help us grasp a world that is seemingly out of control, and imagine what steps we can take to make things better.’ This anthology is subtitled ‘22 modern folk tales in …
Continue reading Contagious Tales, Edited by Andrew Simms: #BookReview.
The pictures in this series were all taken in December, though not this year. My digital picture library started with my first DSLR camera, bought a while back. I share them here to show #ourworldiswonderful.Taken in the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire, England, this one shows a small footbridge taking the path over a private drive …
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 …
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