Ashdown Forest in East Sussex is famous for serving as inspiration for the Hundred Acre Wood, the setting for the Winnie-the-Pooh stories written by A. A. Milne. Milne lived on the northern edge of the forest and took his son, Christopher Robin, walking there. The artist E. H. Shepard drew on the landscapes of Ashdown Forest as inspiration for many of the illustrations he provided for the Pooh books.



Most of the familiar locations from the books can be found at Gill’s Lap (Galleon’s Leap in the books). To reach it, one must walk along a Roman road that slices through the forest across open heathland, surrounded by heather, bracken and gorse. This richly historic landscape is ancient indeed: a stone axe found close to the Roman road dates from prehistoric settlers 40,000 years ago.



The forest is still home to a protected herd of fallow deer, as well as to Scots pines, a cluster of which served as the base camp for our friends’ adventures in the books.

Aerial photography of the famous Great Barrier Reef in Australia, which includes Heart Reef (can you spot it?).

Architectural decorative elements from the external as well as from the internal of the College of All Souls of the Faithful Departed in Oxford.

Santa Lucia church at Colle Santa Lucia hamlet during the festive season, in Belluno, Veneto : postcard perfect. Happy New Year everyone!

Touching again on the theme of very small islands inside lakes or near beaches (see previous posts starting from the one dated 23rd September 2024, up to the one dated 26th October), here is another small island on Lake Bled in Slovenia, held in embrace by the Julian Alps, and capped by the Church of the Assumption, that in its current form was constructed towards the end of the 17th century.

Christmas trees from around the world. (Click on the individual thumbnail to see the whole image.) Happy Christmas to everyone!

Venetian magic.

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In total, there are 37 bridges and footbridges that span the River Seine, which flows for 13 km through Paris. Seen here are three charming exemplars.

Long abandoned buildings, falling into ruin, from gold rush towns to beautiful buildings left behind because of war and civil strife.

Three castle strongholds from the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, in France.