July’s microadventure challenge was to spend time with trees. Here’s what people got up to!
Mags
| It seems that this challenge induced a small epidemic of tree hugging in our ranks. Mags managed quite a few tree-y expeditions this month, including a visit to Bedgebury Pinetum. Some of us are lucky to be surrounded by them on a daily basis. For others in urban settings their presence may be more sporadic and structured. Whichever of these statements apply, you cannot fail to be amazed by the variety of trees that we see around us - size, colour, seasonal changes, leaf shape, species, native, and non native. Mags took some lovely photos of trees, both at Bedgebury and around her workplace and home. Find them in her post "Trees are poems the earth writes upon the sky". |  Mags is a tree hugger, it's official.  Is it a fir cone? Is it a pine cone? I don't know! |
Nikki
Continuing the tree hugging theme on the other side of the world, Nikki says, “I took myself out for a run on a route that's probably one of my favourites, lots of shady pathways and my favourite tree for stretching (pictured in the photo where I look like I'm going to pass out! I'm actually hugging it and trying to express my gratefulness for it about 7.5km into an 8.8km run!).”
 Nikki at 0.0km. |  The path. |  Nikki at 7.5km. |
Kieran
Kieran spent an evening in the woods watching Two Gentlemen of Verona by the Southend Shakespeare Company at Willow Cottage Garden Theatre in Essex. “People brought picnics (and wine), the show was entertaining, and it was dark before the end,” says Kieran. “Afterwards I lit torches for the path, and visitors looked around the cottage.”
 Willow Cottage Garden Theatre. |  Willow Cottage at night. |
Muddy Mum and the Mudlings
| Clare from Mud and Nettles went out tree hugging with her mudlings (children). I like to imagine there was a tree hugging extravaganza. The muddy crew also went on a rather adventurous nighttime geocaching trek. All was going well. The children giddy at being allowed up late and full of excitement for the adventure ahead. The footpath lead us on a track beside farm buildings. As a regular geocacher and walker, this is something I’m used to, it always make me a bit edgy but I trust the maps for my rights of way . . . And there goes an alarm . . . One of the children yells, "Ruuuuuun!” in the fashion of a true rascal. Did they all survive the evening? Find out in “Night Time Adventures in Spooky Wood”! |  Mudling hugging a tree. |
Gillian
I love the photos Gillian has submitted of this gorgeous tree in winter and summer. Gillian says, “He's a gnarled old fellow with many a tale to tell. Whenever I meet him, I feel compelled to shake his politely proffered knob-knuckled hand. Now he is clothed in leafy raiment, under a green canopy of horse chestnut leaves. His limbs spiral round like huge barley sugar sticks. All in all he's one pretty cool tree. I don’t have any tree hugging pics, but I love this tree; he's like an old friend.”
 The tree in winter. |  The tree in summer. |  An old friend. |
Jane and Mimo
After returning to the Australian winter from a holiday in Europe, Jane and Mimo made a gingerbread house with gingerbread trees alongside. Jane says, “It was the first time we had ever done this, and I was quite keen that it be lovely, so took creative control of the house. Mimo decorated some gingerbread cookies and did really well at praising his mama's efforts when it was all done. The tableaux includes trees, so unless anything more adventurous and tree related comes up, then this may be it for me! It was very delicious. I was very happy that the family of Mimo's friend from daycare helped us to demolish and eat it all in one go.”
 Gingerbread house in progress. |  Gingerbread house with gingerbread people and gingerbread trees. |
Dan and Jonathan
| Dan and I did lots of tree-related things in July. In fact, each time we got near a wood, it was, “Is this our tree microadventure?” My personal favourite tree was an enormous yew tree we discovered in the church yard in Crowhurst. The trunk was hollow and split in three. Huge, gnarled, yet somehow smooth-looking branches twisted out over the spindly black metal fence, propped up by planks and headstones. We also got the opportunity to go cherry picking, which was fun. The family of a friend of a friend rents a cherry tree in an orchard not far from us, but they weren’t able to get down to pick the cherries before the season closed. So, at the last minute, we were able to drive over and pick three boxes of delicious fresh cherries! In the end, the tree-y microadventure I wrote up was our rainy afternoon in the woods, reading our books and drinking tea under our tarp. Watch the video here. |  This yew tree is estimated to be over 850 years old. |
August’s microadventure theme: explore a border
August’s challenge, set by Dan, is to explore a border. He says, “As ever, make of this what you will. It could be the border or boundary of a country (we’ll be spending time on the Anglo-Welsh dividing line), a state or a county (we always make a ba-dump noise when we drive across a county border), properties, easements, suburbs, cities or the coast. You could beat the bounds. Enjoy!”
This challenge really appeals to me. I like the idea of exploring different kinds of borders - geographical, political, metaphorical - or even of simply trying to find them. Several years ago we spent a day here and there walking out of the city. Over the course of the walk, as we meandered through the sprawling eastern suburbs of Melbourne, I constantly reevaluated my thoughts about what the end of the city might look like. Was it the last point of access by city public transport services? The last place to get a decent coffee? The border between MFB and CFA territory? A particular road? The edge of this or that map? I enjoyed the slipperiness of that border. I wonder what you will discover this month.
(Other borders are obviously much easier to find and much more difficult to explore or cross. National borders are intertwined with bureaucracy, nationalism, economics, imprisonment, the policing of human movement and the restriction of certain human bodies and lives. I hope you don't find yourself turned away from or detained within a country you're trying to enter or leave - this month or ever.)
(Other borders are obviously much easier to find and much more difficult to explore or cross. National borders are intertwined with bureaucracy, nationalism, economics, imprisonment, the policing of human movement and the restriction of certain human bodies and lives. I hope you don't find yourself turned away from or detained within a country you're trying to enter or leave - this month or ever.)
If you'd like to join in this month's microadventure, then sally forth to the borderlands. Leave a comment here, write a blog post, ping me on Twitter with a photo and a few words or email me and I'll collate the adventures at the end of the month.
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