Ben Salt

Volume up. To cleanse your feed, the sounds of nature and a gentle breeze from the green of Northern Thailand. As the intrepid crow flies, Myanmar lies 200 km across increasingly remote river valleys, mountains & tropical forests to the north. Laos is 100 km to the east.

Find a tree that fits your posture. Sit & use your senses to really ‘know’ the woodland Don’t sit for a minute, sit for an hour. You start to be aware of things that weren’t there before, smells that appear from nowhere, feel leaf and branch debris on your face. 1/3

Bird nests are some of the most impressive examples of natural engineering. Using nothing but their beaks and feet, birds create structures that look almost impossible to design-carefully adapted to their climate,surroundings, and predators. Many of these architectural techniques existed long before humans developed similar building concepts.

On Valentine’s Day 36 years ago, at the request of Carl Sagan, NASA turned Voyager 1's camera back toward home for one last look. From 3.7 billion miles away, it captured this: a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam. Here is how Carl Sagan beautifully described it: “Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it, everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor, and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every 'superstar,' every 'supreme leader,' every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there — on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam. The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand. It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.”

A Chiltern bridleway on a freezing morning, in the valley between Cookley Green and the Warburg nature reserve. #winter #chilterns

Very much looking forward to colour sprouting from the garden again, I’m bored of brown and grey. I’ll just keep stitching them from my mind until then! 😉 Here’s some snippets taken from my embroideries, some of them from quite long ago… 🪡🌺🌿🪻🌱🌷🌸 #thesewingsongbird

When it snows and all you can hear is the birdsong❄️ I took a camera out after it snowed to capture the winter wonderland #yorkshirewolds #winterwidlife

Haukur Sigurdsson captured this photo of cross country skiers looking like musical notes.

@WalshFreedom "Evil has nothing to stop it doing what it wants, while good has one hand tied behind it's back. To do things it needs to do do win, it'd have to become evil to do 'em." (2/2)

@WalshFreedom I literally just read this in The Secret Commonwealth: The Book of Dust Volume Two by Phillip Pullman and it rang very true: "It's the oldest human problem, Lyra, an' it's the difference between good and evil. Evil can be unscrupulous, and good can't." (1/2)

Here’s the truth: You almost can’t blame Trump for thinking he’s above the law, that he’s accountable to no one, and that he can do whatever he wants. You really can’t blame him for thinking all that. Why not? Bcuz his voters, his media cheerleaders & sycophants, and members of his political party have NEVER held him accountable for ANYTHING he’s done. They’ve allowed him to get away with EVERYTHING. In essence, his followers over the years have trained him to think he’s above the law. They’re the ones to blame. I mean, think about it - Trump tried to overturn an American election and wasn’t even held accountable for THAT. For THAT! Man, if I were Trump, I too would think I’m untouchable, I’d think I was God.

In Japanese, "tsundoku" means collecting books and letting them pile up, not for neglect, but for the joy of knowing they're there, full of untold stories.

Not sure why I still post on here. Habit I guess? Perhaps the vain hope something beautiful will permeate through the hate? Either way, here’s something new. A fiery sunrise over Elterwater in the Lake District on the last day of 2025. Stay safe in 2026 friends 💙🫶🏻

Every so often I like to share a ‘living’ photograph, so that you can hear and hopefully feel the peace of the scene, as well as see it. This was my view this morning, and I honestly never wanted to leave. If you need 15 seconds of beauty today, turn your sound up and watch the diamonds fall. 📍 Peak District, England © Peaklass, all real, no AI

@tidwell_monica @Brindille_ I was outside looking up at the Moon and stars a few days ago. As hard as it is right now for so many of us, we really need to remind ourselves to look up and see the beauty around us every day.

@Brindille_ @hellobensalt Absolutely love this! It takes one .. well me, at any rate… into the world of what really matters.Thank you.

The Winter Wolf Moon © Paul Evans (British painter)

The almost full moon about to set behind Ingleborough, as seen this morning from Winskill

As the lights go out all over the world, be a shining beacon It is important everyone knows there is still good out there, and where to find it The darker it gets, the more you shine Do not lose your humanity

“At the still point of the turning world.” ~ T. S. Eliot, 𝐶𝑜𝑙𝑙𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑃𝑜𝑒𝑚𝑠 Sept. 26, 1888–Jan. 4, 1965 · © 𝑀𝑜𝑜𝑛𝑟𝑖𝑠𝑒 by Saskia Boelsums

We do it to challenge ourselves. So, whether it’s 1 mile 5K or even just a walk around the block, every step counts. Run, walk or move forwards in any way you can - just move! Let’s make this year's celebration an unforgettable day of positive change. facebook.com/groups/5435568…

Running is so much more than times and numbers. It connects us across borders and divides, to the ground beneath us and more deeply to ourselves. We do it for better physical and mental well-being, for purpose and opportunity, for feelings of freedom, growth and achievement.

Happy #GlobalRunningDay, everyone! 🌍🏃‍♀️ Runners Love Running will always celebrate the joy, freedom and power of movement, while championing inclusivity and camaraderie. But, at the beginning of June every year, we come together even more passionately as a global community.