Here's where I live (marked) in relation to the forest.
≡ Click to see image ≡

essexjan always posts the most interesting things.

When I was a little girl, I envied people who lived next to forests -- they sounded so mysterious and magical.

Heck -- I still envy them!

See, I think the people who live anywhere else post the most interesting things.

Oooh! I love cool places. It's like breathing soup here in NYC.

Ooooh, flashback! I've been there, and it is very nice. Very different from the forests here (example 1, 2), which are all old-growth. Example 2 is Lynn Canyon. It's not 2 minutes from my back door, but only a 15 min drive. I'm not sure what the difference is between the two... maybe it's the rainforest situation we live in here, and the forests are all very damp. That and the abundance of coniferous trees. Still, when I was in Epping Forest I can remember it was such a strange feeling to be able to run at high speeds through the trees without having to worry about getting tripped up by the undergrowth.

Hey, essexjan, this is totally unrelated but I was wondering if you knew anyone who is or has been in the London Fire Brigade. My father was, and he gave me his jacket that he wore. It's pretty stylish and all, and it's missing some buttons and I've been trying to find them, but no luck. I was thinking of writing to the LFB and asking, but thought I'd exhaust other avenues first.
The closest thing I've found is this button (crown and waves, 24mm, post-1966) from this site. The problem is that the buttons on my coat are chrome and not gold - apart from that, it's identical. I'm looking for 5 or 6 of them. Looked on ebay, but no luck. Maybe you'd have some ideas?

Such gorgeous colors. I found the pictures as a group to be quite soothing. You do always take the most interesting pictures, essexjan. Nicely done!

Zack_Replica, the London Fire Brigade was replaced a while back (probably 20 years ago) by the London Civil Defence and Fire Authority, so I expect the uniforms changed then too. I would imagine the button you have is brass plate, not gold.

You could buy the chrome buttons and brass plate them, with a kit like this.