I love it when trees grow on rocks. It shows just how determined and resilient they can be, if we let them.
This oak is part of one of the few remaining areas of temperate rainforest in the UK - look at the tree ferns growing on it.
We need to protect and extend these precious remnants.
The ferns adorning this mossy tree remind me of the frilly gills of an axolotl, and I imagine this capture as the plant-axolotl Dragon of Kaiser Woods 🐉🌲
I wish you could hear this scene: the sigh of a breeze through the trees; the swish of fallen leaves dancing with that gentle wind; the pitter-patter of a recent shower's raindrops falling from the canopy to the understory below; the even quieter, almost imperceptible sound of leaves shaking free of their trees and landing among piles of other fallen leaves; the occasional chirping of a squirrel, the carefree song of a bird. No sounds of humankind this far into the woods, this deep into autumn.
This is another one of the newest illustrations. It actually started life as a lino print (when I used to do that), and I’d been thinking about making and illustration version for ages.
Very few trail scenes beat the look and feel of running thru a silent and still misty forest. It's like all the rest of the universe drops away, and all that remains is my body, the trail, and a small bubble of peace and tranquility that moves with me through the cool, gray void 🌲🩶
I wasn't sure I would share this photo because it's a scene that feels common in the forests I love, but then I realized that's exactly why I should share:
Not all the magic of life is extraordinary—sometimes we live with magic all around us. It's important that we remember to pause and be grateful for everyday magic 🙏💚
Also:
Here's another example of Sol's mighty power, the light of our life so bright that its radiant orb occludes a tree trunk set between the sun and the camera. I love that ☀️😮💛
In my experience, these purple-pink phenotypes are much less common than white trillium in these parts (the forests of western Washington); I was very surprised, then, to find that almost half—by my very rough estimate—of all the trillium I saw on the Mima Falls Trail were this purple-pink color. When I got onto the McKenny Trail, the majority went clearly back to white. I wonder what it is about the Mima Falls Trail... 🤔