Runner-up!

Nothing beats the wilds of Montana....

Runner-up!

Runner-up!

Fruitful Dreaming of a Green Man.

Into The Forest

Runner-up!

Winner!

Growing up in Hawaii I practically lived in trees. I climbed them to show the boys I was just as strong and brave as they were. I climbed them to gather beautiful plumeria flowers to make leis for my hair. I climbed them because from the tops of the branches I could see the whole of my tiny world. I climbed them because I was a wild thing, and that's what wild things do...

Runner-up!

Creaky Tree

Come, with a tale and a truth to share,

Come where a story and a song fill the air.

Where laughter falls softly like snow in the night

And warm hearts glow like a campfire bright.

Come where teasing music tempts the ear,

Come where the rhythm of the drumming is clear.

Where wisdom winds its wandering way

Through the pattern of the seasons, the Night and Day.

Come dance in rings to the rhythm of Time,

Come, come hear the reason in the Vital Rhyme.

Where the seasons turn to warm from cold,

Where seeds are sown, new life from the old,

Where the weak grow strong and the fools grow wise

And hope is as real as light in the eyes.

Where the grass grows green and the trees grow tall,

Where the soft shoots rise and the crisp leaves fall.

Where the sunlight dapples both gold and green

And the rain fills the grey with a silver sheen.

Where the moon shines with the promise that there’s strength in change

And the stars shine with the secrets of a distant age.

Come all you questers with a question to ask,

Come all you travellers to a home at last,

Come all you wanderers, may you find your way

To the place where dark night becomes as clear as day.

Come you adventurers, forego your quarry,

Stop in the stillness and take time to tarry.

Come all you lonely all you limping lost

Where the price you have paid is redeemed without cost.

Come because you wish to, not because you must

As you would to a hearth fire in a gathering dust.

For you’ll never know times that you’ll hold so dear,

And you’ll never see horizons become so clear.

And you’ll never need doubt that there’s power in the land,

And you’ll always know its strength brings power to your hand.

And your eyes will open like flowers in the spring,

And you heart will soar with summers swallows on the wing.

Like leaves in the autumn will your frail fears fall

And like trees in the winter, you’ll stand tall.

For you’ll never run as wild and you’ll never live as free

As you will in the Vale of the Creaky Tree.

Twelve are the trees that from a ring round you:

Slight strength of the silver birch, ancient ardour of the yew,

Healing berries of the hawthorn, the willows heart that weeps,

The smooth green skin and the strength of the beech,

The sycamore, the elder, hazel, alder and ash,

Spreading splendour of horse chestnut , pines living green mast,

Together cast an emerald light, shining brighter in the shade

In the heart of this secret grove, this ancient glen, this magic glade.

When the wind stirs, the ancient wisdom is spoke

In the creaking voice of this noble, gnarled oak.

Oh Ancient Tree, Oh Mighty Tree,

You’re living with the life that lives in me,

Runner-up!

My daughter Lily during a forest walk in Dorset. Lily and her dandelion wish!

Fun In the park trees and swinging action – what could be better? photo: Lesley Holliday

Crows spewing over
a brooding sky –
cascade an epiphany
down upon my
knuckled skull.
 

Photograph of cows (included a 3 headed one?!) taken in Dartmoor

The fairies did rescue the Shark (he's called Mark!)

#forestofstories

I find the picture I took of a tree in Verona enchanting

#forestofstories