If one really loves nature, one will find beauty everywhere

Vincent van Gogh said that a long time ago. And all I can say is it's true. If you really love nature then you will agree with me. Because there really is beauty everywhere. The smallest things can make a person happy, or surprise you. This week's POB Photocontest has the topic "TREES". And well, I live just 5 minutes walking distance from a forest. Every day I walk there with my dogs, so I have more than enough pictures of it. Every season is different. In the winter they are bare, in the spring the young green sprouts from their branches and in the summer they provide shade for my dogs and me with their dense green foliage. Then autumn comes and every day I can enjoy a true explosion of color and a storm of leaves as they slowly drop their leaves ... Trees are fantastic. But trees also have their dark days, such as during the drought that we experienced in the Netherlands in 2018.

2018 Drought

That summer it was so dry that the trees all looked bare and dead. And that really made for a surreal image to see. In that drought I drove to the Maashorst where I have always loved to be, and I was just shocked. It is normally always green there in the summer, but then there was little to see. You might think that seeing bare trees wouldn't be so shocking, but if you're used to the lush greenery of the trees, seeing them like this is a bit unsettling.

It was as if we had suddenly landed in some kind of dystopian world where all the trees had died and all that was left was a barren wasteland. I kind of got the feeling that I had ended up on a film set instead of a nature reserve.

Wake-up Call

The 2018 drought was a wake-up call. Since then, more and more people have realized that we have to take better care of our planet if we want to enjoy those beautiful trees for a long time to come. Unfortunately, for just as many people it remains with shouting, but doing nothing.

I can tell you why trees are just great, it's not that hard. You can also know yourself. At school everyone learned that trees produce oxygen, right? In addition, they offer a home to many animals, and trees are also beautiful to look at. And it is even said that hugging and talking to trees is better than talking to a psychiatrist. Let's keep it that way, we just need trees!

Then I haven't even mentioned the versatility of trees. We use them for their wood, we make many products from them, you can think of all utensils that require wood, but also paper, medicines and natural food. Who doesn't appreciate fresh apples, pears, cherries, plums, mangoes and a lot of other fruit for which we need those trees. You could say that trees are just a kind of natural supermarket.

We NEED trees

The last thing that is important to say, especially in this time of climate change, but even more so in this time of deforestation. Trees help us to combat climate change! They absorb CO2 from the air and store it in their wood and leaves. This means that trees play an important role in reducing the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere. Gosh, where does climate change come from when you consider that we have been deforesting for years because of the ever-growing world population?

So let's all take a moment to express our gratitude for trees. Let's protect and cherish them so we can enjoy them for many years to come. And when there is another drought and the trees look bare and dead, let's not forget that there is hope. Only we will have to act NOW and ensure the planting of many trees to protect all life on earth. The time of waiting is over, and the time when people can do whatever they want undisturbed is also over, we will have to put nature first and see how we fit into nature.

It's not nature that has to adapt to us, we have to adapt to nature!

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