BEDM Day 2: Adventure: Into Swallowship...

Adventures can be as big or small as you want them to be.  If you are a thrill seeker, your adventure will be much overt and extreme than mine. If you have a life full of difficulties, the adventure can be escaping briefly from those. And for those of us in the middle, an adventure is doing something different from the norm, trying something different, visiting somewhere new.  An adventure implies something new!

Well, I always regard any walk as exciting, especially when that walk involves woods or forest- who knows what kind of creatures or magical beings you may encounter. Or finding a new and exciting species of tree, animal or plant.

Let me take you on an adventure...

In the Easter holidays, on Easter Sunday and Monday, I took two walks respectively with my Brother-in-law and then my husband into Swallowship woods above Hexham. Above, since you have to climb the hill to reach them.

There is something awe-inspiring about being surrounded by ancient trees, overlookers over decades and centuries. Who knows what they have seen and what has changed whilst they grow there quietly and wisely.





There is an eloquent quietude which I find unique to the woods.  There is a sense that you are allowed to enter this place of venerable wisdom, rather like entering a library.   And yet, when you raise your voice to utter a word, the trees acquiesce to the request.  The delight of discovering something unusual, the glee at the discovery of a hidden den, an abandoned camp site, the grand mound of an long-established ant colony.





Who built it? When? Where are they now?



The sight of babbling brook and stones guiding you across.



One step...



Two steps...



We come to a brief end, a blanket of green stretches away from the forest boundaries but not today, thank you.



The path descends.  Something is arriving...



Ah, the sight of a glistening river! Find a path downwards, post haste.



Calm, quiet.



Places to climb and explore.



Sites to sigh over and long for warm summers to bathe in.





And by the river, the unexpected detritus left by a previous visitor.  Which book does it come from?



Rest a while at the make-shift fire place left by the previous intrepid.



The sight of a fearless squirrel, scampering over tree bridges.



And finally, as the sun sets, to look forward and back, wondering how to get home safely.


Ah, the woods is a great place for adventure.


xxxx


This is my Day 2 post for Blog every day in May with Rosalilium. The brief for today was Adventure.

Linking to Hat Attack with Judith- the Style Crone with my panama!