Woods

This week Egidio wants us to focus on the woods – and that suits me perfectly well. Hopefully you too! I walk in my forest every day, but maybe not every day in Madeira…

So, I will pick some lovely Madeira memories from June, that hopefully will add to the mystery of this green island.

The Laurissilva forest is a 20 million years old subtropical rainforest – a UNESCO world heritage,

covering about 20 % of the island. Most of the species here are endemic to Macronesia.

There are many interesting living beings in this forest woods – plants, mushrooms, lichen, birds and insects. Madeiran Chaffinches are spoiled with food from the hikers…

Madre de louro is a mushroom that grows on lager trees in Laurissilva. ”Madre de louro”, or ”Mother Laurel” is said to be good for the blood and work against rheumatism. It was even used as an insecticide.

There is something special about dense forests with high humidity. The scent, the quietness. And, I can hear the water as it trickles along the mossy stones. In Madeira the levadas add to this soothing sound – sometimes they are fast flowing, sometimes only a slow, hardly noticeable flow. And I know how good this is for my well being. Forest bathing in its true sense – and it’s no surprise that it’s origin is Japanese!

I have always loved hiking, and hopefully I will be able to keep it up even if it has become more difficult as I age. The best thing with hiking is the possibility of being alone in and with nature, for reflection and for restoring myself. Sometimes we meet a fellow hiker or two. We nod and say a soft ”hello” as we meet. I guess many of us feel the same about hiking, so talking is unnecessary.

We heard from someone in the city though, that since Covid, the levadas can even feel crowded in places…luckily we did not have to face that. This island is a hikers’ heaven and haven.

Thank you, Egidio for this beautiful challenge, and our guest host last week, Stupidity Hole, asked us to share quiet hours. You gave us more quiet times with your beautiful galleries. I hope you will join us again this week in forest bathing. Don’t forget to use the “lens-artists” hashtag when creating your post so we can easily find it in the Reader.

Next week, Tina will send us another challenge. It will go live at noon EST in the USA. Tune in to find out more about the challenge then. Please see this page to learn more about the Lens-Artists Challenge and its history. Stay well.