Moss-covered rocks in a stream at the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee.

At Ishigedo-no-se of Oirase-keiryu mountain stream, Aomori, Japan

A stream below a beaver pond in Fiver Rivers Environmental Education Center, Albany Co., New York.

Well, I might have thought I would be back in Snowdonia by now, but I was reading earlier it might be months before the law is changed and we are allowed back to our favourite places in Wales.

But like many others, during lockdown, we have been exploring closer to home. It's taken me a while to dig out some local Ordnance Survey maps and work out a couple of interesting circular routes in areas I've not considered before (although I've never been one for going to the same places time and again, haha!). I might never have taken this shot except some sixth sense told me to look behind me. Nothing beats a walk like this on your own when the countryside is this beautiful. Just peace, perfect peace.

Lower Cascade Falls at Patapsco Valley State Park.

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I walked down by the local creek the other afternoon. The recent rains have increased flow rates and the water in Cherry Creek is tea like from all the fallen leaves. Downstream about 75 feet I notice a disturbance in the water but don't see anything. Then I see something moving upstream on the surface of the water like a big fish. It gets a little closer then I realize it must be an otter swimming vigorously in my direction! It wasn't an otter but an American Mink (Mustela vision). It's in the weasel family and is almost as aquatic as an otter and a nocturnal hunter. They eat voles, frogs, crayfish, waterfowl and their eggs, mice, rabbits, snakes, and aquatic invertebrates.

It got to within about 6 feet of where I stood backlit with camera on the monopod, it looked up at me then swam a little circle around a rock then scurried out of the water on the opposite bank and darted under a fallen log! Wow, glad I had the long lens! Pinch me and I do believe in luck. Mendocino County, North California U.S.A.

Focus stacked in Affinity Photo for iPad

Sun City Resort, North West Province, South Africa

Please don't use this image on websites, blogs or other media without my explicit permission. © All rights reserved Contact to buy : nejdet_2005@hotmail.com

New! Challenge # 144.0 ~ Water Works ~The Award Tree ~

near Vilamaior, province of A Coruña, Galicia, Spain

fogy stream

at Kikuchi Keikoku in Kikuchi-shi Kumamoto-ken

We took a wrong turn at Mowich Lake and found ourselves by this stream near dusk.

Below the falls of The Devil's Punchbowl, Quoich Water becomes a lot more tranquil as it gently flows through steep sided Pine forested Glens.

Stands in contrast to the freshly fallen snow.

Reflections of the sky and a footbridge with railings that crosses The Hogsmill River just where it joins The Thames.

Enjoying the trees changing and the streams flowing before Old man Winter sets in.

Entrance to Turda Gorge (Romanian: Cheile Turzii, Hungarian: Tordai-hasadék) in the early morning

Yeah....it was that good. :-)

The river below Burney Falls in Shasta County, California

My tripod is broken so I haven't shot any stitched panoramas for a while, but this scene just begged for a pano crop.

Looking down the stream running through the main (lower) archaeological site of the monastery of Glendalough (County Wicklow, in eastern Ireland), on a cloudy midday in mid-May.

The Valley of the Two Lakes -- the meaning of the Irish "Gleann dá Loch" -- is nestled on the eastern side of the Wicklow Mountains, located within the Wicklow Mountains National Park / Páirc Náisiúnta Sléibhte Chill Mhantáin. This stream runs beside the monastic site of Glendalough, which was initially founded in the 6th century, by St. Kevin, and is now maintained by the Office of Public Works (Heritage Ireland).

Archaeological evidence supports the understanding that streams, springs, and other bodies of water were of importance in pre-Christian Celtic religion. Walking around Glendalough, it is not difficult to believe that it could have held spiritual significance even before St Kevin's settling there.

(A picture in my Sacred Ireland album / set.)

[Glendalough site stream 2011 may 14 cd; IMG_0189]

Terra Cotta Conservation Area

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Mill House dating back to 1830 in Flat Rock, NC. In the mid-1900s the Mill House was converted to apartments. The original Mill House and a hand full of other surrounding buildings now operate as a resort.