Symbiosis and the Spirit Animals of the Forest

Anyway, late afternoon, New Year's Day, I was trying to persuade my youngest to go out for a walk in the woods with me. It was a balmy 16 degrees Celcius just outside of London, true global warming and sun-in- it's- hot- cycle weather, despite the fact that we are well into winter. One upside of Global Warming is that the long S.A.D. winters that we used to have here in the South East are not missed; except for the snow of course. I miss the snow! We used to get a few snowfalls each winter and have even woken once or twice to a White Christmas. Then we would grab the sleds and head out for the nearest hill, take long walks in the Forest, and build snowmen, usually adorning them with South African beanies and scarfs 😂 In recent years we have had to get in the car and travel to find real snow so that our two children could experience the joy of a winter wonderland. We do have the odd flurry which they still enjoy at home, but we haven't had enough for a proper garden snowman for some time.

But, I digress hehe. Back to my walk in the woods...

I realised that I would need to be a bit more persuasive to lure my son out of the comfort of the house, and the upside of the weather was not doing the trick, so I showed him this post from @dreemsteem about breathing trees
Ever see a tree breathe?...

He was so intrigued! He wanted to find a breathing tree for himself!

So we set off across the road and into the little woodland opposite our house. We were just walking around looking at the trees, taking pictures of those wrapped in symbiotic love with other plants... in the middle picture you can see an example of the bird boxes that the Woodland Trust has installed on a number of the trees in the woods.

Then we came across an open clearing where a few fallen trees lay and we discovered what J referred to as

a tiny village of mushrooms

That made me smile...even mushrooms need their village; their tribe of fungi to be happy😉

We did wonder if there may be a few wood sprytes or fairies floating about...

We may have hugged a few trees too hehe. This one had a massive trunk! Not a Redwood by any means, but to my J it was ginormous!

And this one below seems to have decided to grow a whole set of airborne roots to steady itself. Sometimes it seems, you only have yourself to rely on💗

Finally, there is this tree near the entrance to the woodland that we passed on the trip in and back out again. We were coming up to it, just off the edge of the path, and it appeared to have an interesting hollow, so we stepped off to the left to get a better view and we both saw it...not sure if you will ...but to me, it was a sheer delight...out of nowhere, I see a *Luck Dragon's* head peeking out of the tree, sleeping peacefully... fortunately he didn't stir. A rare sight indeed to spot a tree spirit animal of the forest 💞Jack saw it too although he called it a Panda! !ROTFL but it's all about perspective, right?

We may not have spotted a breathing tree but our Luck Dragon was pretty special too.

And the most important thing? I had a wonderful walk connecting with my 8-year-old son; another positive footstep on our very own ' neverending story '.

All photos are my own snapshots from my phone.

References:

Symbiosis

Luck Dragon

Tree spirits