Riverbank

And out again I curve and flow

To join the brimming river

For men may come and men may go

But I go on for ever.

Alfred Lord Tennyson

The Old Age of Youth

“Forty is the old age of youth”  Victor Hugo

This week my gorgeous friend joined the old age of youth. Welcome! This decade rocks and you’re rocking it!

Gunmetal Sky

Can you see the man in this photo? He’s there, I promise! When you find him the man in question is @lovelustlondon. He’s easier to find in this shot from our day out last spring.

Incidentally, he’s just starting regularly blogging again after some time away from that and his photos and writing are definitely worth checking. I love this week’s Sinful Sunday (which I can’t comment on O as Blogger always kicks me out!). And you can buy his latest book here.

Cabin Fever

cabin fever
noun
a state characterized by anxiety, restlessness, and boredom, arising from a prolonged stay in a remote or confined place.

I don’t know about you, but I think spending a prolonged period of time in a confined space with the wonderful Tabitha Rayne would result in anything but boredom. A fever maybe, but definitely not boredom!

Wood Witch

The theme of my February Photofest 2017 was black and white. This year I had grand plans to recreate 28 of the sexiest album covers my friends and I could think of. That idea required far more time than I had at my disposal and up until Tuesday this week I didn’t think I’d be participating at all. But then I made a snap decision to hop on board and now I’m busy working out how I can fill 28 days!

I’m not going to give the whole month a theme this year but I am going to give each week a theme. That was Molly’s suggestion when I saw her at the sex bloggers’ Christmas party so thank you for that!

The theme of week one is an easy one to fill from my archives of unused shots – outdoors! And better still, we kick off with Throwback Thursday so I get to re-edit an old favourite. And that old favourite is October. When I showed @19syllables yesterday her response was “ooh, I’m a wood witch.” I really loved the unedited version of this shot, but right now I think I might love this sinister version even more! What do you think?

Tree Limb

Dendrochronology is the method by which you date a tree by analysing its patterns and age rings. It is derived from the Greek word dendron which translates as ‘tree limb’. On Friday I noticed @lovelustlondon tweet that this weekend he adds another age ring to his chronology. As I’d so far only published one shot from our April walk in the park I thought a birthday Sinful Sunday was in order. Happy Birthday!

Forest, Friendship, Freedom

Here’s the second of the photos from mine and @19syllables’s autumn adventure last week. Words and photo by her, body mine! Anyone who knows me will guess these words made me weepy happy. 

A trip in the woods with Exposing40 is a many faceted joy. During the times I’ve been out with her on photography adventures I’ve learned so much. It seems hackneyed but I’ve definitely grown because of it, both for myself, and in my attitude and knowledge of others. The comments that people write on her blog are so positive but sometimes those words make me feel that the pictures don’t tell the whole story. I think they paint a scene of calm and oneness with ourselves and nature. But although there is happiness it’s perhaps not as zen as you might think.

There is so much laughing. Actual hooting. Naked, joyful hooting. Right at the moment we should be super-quiet and inconspicuous.  

There’s tip-toeing barefoot (bare-arsed) over the spikey beech nuts on the forest floor (“ooh, oww yeesh, gah!”). There’s the moment she asked me (from where she’s lying on the forest floor) how the pictures are looking and I accidentally say she looks “a little bit like roadkill” and we laugh that silent sort of laughing when tears well up in your eyes and you can’t make any noise. I backtrack:

“No, no, not roadkill. Not roadkill at all. Maybe something out of one of those Scandinavian TV thrillers..”

We hold onto our naked sides to as if to stem the laughing from bursting out of us and rethink the shot. There’s forgetting which tree we’ve left our clothes behind. There’s E40 so sweetly reminding me to focus the shots and maybe wear my reading glasses which I’m consistently failing to do because I am having So. Much. Damn. Fun. There’s discovering we’ve lost E40’s knickers, retracing our steps only to find them hanging on a twig, jaunty and triumphant, aloft in the breeze like a standard to nudity, and her whooping through the idyllic dappled shade “Hooray! I found them!”

Afterwards, I’m brimming with a special sort of wellness that can only be achieved through forests and friendships and freedom.

October

“I’m so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers.” L.M. Montgomery

@19syllables, by me.

Folly

Our laughing entwined
With the chatter of magpies
Folly unconstrained

@19syllables, @JediHamster100 and I went down to the woods this week. So much fun! “What Amazons we are!” said Haiku on seeing the photos. She and I below by Jedi Hamster; Jedi Hamster by me is over here! Haiku above is by @19syllables.

   

Woodland Goddess

“I feel like a princess – no – a goddess!”

I couldn’t have had a better response from Tabitha Rayne on sending her these photos. What an utter joy she is to spend time with! Breakfast and a walk in the woods made the 5.30am alarm call 100% worthwhile!

Do hop over to Tabitha’s place to check out her Sinful Sunday and press the lips to see what other treats have been offered up this week!