Flooded trees

A walk through the edge of the Forest of Dean near Cinderford took us through an area adjoining a "quag" i.e. quagmire. This particular area is looked after with a view to preserving the wetland characteristics that were once more common than they are now. It was a bright day with a quite strong wind and the ripples combined with the "real" trees and the reflected trees made for an interesting photograph.

 photos © T. Boughen     Camera: iPhone

Silver birch avenue

The small, closely growing, silver birch avenue in this photograph must have been deliberately planted because it runs along the top of an embankment of a disused railway near the edge of the Forest of Dean. It is now one of the footpaths that runs from Cinderford's Linear Park into the forest. 

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon P900

The Wishing Tree

I recently became aware of "The Wishing Tree" near Cinderford in the Forest of Dean and we undertook a walk that included stopping off at it. It is a tree - in this instance a dead one - where people hammer a coin into the trunk and make a wish. Until I became aware of this example I didn't know that it is one of a number of such trees found in the British Isles. The idea of it sounds to be of great antiquity, and I suppose in some ways it is like the love token involving locks fixed to the railings of bridges. I had imagined that this Wishing Tree would be away from other trees giving it greature stature, but it was fairly closely surrounded by others and relatively hard to find.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon Z 5

Gloucestershire College, Cinderford

As we walked round the large pond at the edge of the Steam Mills area of Cinderford we were surprised to come upon a large, shiny, modern building. It didn't show on our map. What was it? Peeping out from the trees on its site overlooking the water, it appeared to be modern steel and glass offices with attached factory buildings clad in wood. As we followed the footpath between the pond and the building we could see nothing to suggest its identity. It was clearly quite new, the landscaping barely established. When we were driving home a road sign suggested its possible identity. But not until I fired up the computer did I discover that it is the Forest of Dean campus of Gloucestershire College, a building devoted to vocational education.

photos © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

Mural, Cinderford, Gloucestershire

Street murals that are painted with the support of the community are just as variable as those produced in a clandestine manner by a graffitist. This example, in Cinderford, Gloucestershire, is to my mind, at the better end of the continuum. It is in a collage form, similar to how a pin board might be covered in cut or torn photographs with snippets of text. It seeks to celebrate notable Forest of Dean personalities and keep alive and celebrate some of the language peculiarities of the area.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Sony DSC-RX100