Pet Portraits and Wildlife Art

This morning we completed the oak marking in Sallow Vallets, a lovely area in the Forest of Dean. This area is very popular with cyclists but is also one of the prettiest parts of the Forest.



The image above is from a place known as the view point, where the tariff team have sat many a lunch time enjoying the view. My photos (all stuck together) do not do the view justice, on a sunny day you can see a large slice of the Dean and most of the ridges so I have been informed by Andrew 'the oracle' Davis are remnants of old mines which was a huge thriving business not that long ago. One of the more peculiar forest laws are that if you work down a mine for a year and a day plus being born 'within the hundred of St Briavels' you are entitled to open your own mine and work it for monetary reward. Today there are only a handful of freeminers left and with the lack of children being born at the local Dilke Hospital, the number of true Foresters has dwindled to near zero. The Foresters are a proud breed and a true Forester is a rung above the other locals, and so they should be. There are also bylaws regarding Commoners who are allowed to run their sheep on Forestry land rather than having to pen them up, as a result most of the sheep are road wise and pretty sharp!!