The oak. Patriarch of the forest and hero of folklore, healer and natural monument

A mighty oak, an age-old oak  

Stands there beside the ravine. 

It has flung out its leafy forelock, 

Its brow touches the cloud.

Its boughs have been bent since time began, 

Its bark is as if of steel. 

In the forest, from afar, to the grandfather 

The trees are bowing down. 

(Mariia Pryhara) 

In the forest, among birches and poplars, it stands out with its mighty trunk, its curly crown and its carved leaves.

Lviv. Enerhetychna Street. A monument oak. Trunk girth 5 m

Where the Kazennyi Torets river begins

"A river begins from a small stream" - everyone knows the lines from the children's song. So where does the Kazennyi Torets river, an important blue highway of the Donetsk land, take its beginning?

 

The Kazennyi Torets gully. A pond in the bed of the Kazennyi Torets river. Pokrovsk district, Donetsk region

Avdiivka. The worked-out sand quarry. A recreation zone in a front-line town

In the industrial Donbas, not rich in water resources, a worked-out sand quarry on the eastern side of Avdiivka has become a popular place of rest.

Avdiivka. The sand quarry

Lozova. The Druzhba arboretum. The townspeople's green friend and part of the Kharkiv region's nature reserve fund

In modern towns, wholesale construction leaves less and less space for the green islands that produce oxygen and create saving shade. Ukraine has 57 arboretums, most of them created 20-40 years ago on the site of old forest parks. The Druzhba arboretum in the town of Lozova, Kharkiv region, was founded in the 1930s, and over its almost 100-year history it has changed its structure, its name, its status and its popularity.

 

Lozova, Kharkiv region.  The Druzhba arboretum

Slovianka. Travelling through the villages of the Dnipropetrovsk region

Slovianka is one of the oldest villages in the Dnipropetrovsk region. It received its name in 1777, when, on the instruction of the governor of the Azov province, the settlement of the fertile lands on the bank of the Byk river began. Slovianka lies 125 kilometres from the regional centre. Before the Mezhova district was abolished, 14 km of asphalt road separated the village from the district centre. After the amalgamation of the communities, the residents of the Mezhova area have to cover more than 100 kilometres in 2 hours to reach the district centre of Synelnykove. There is no bus service between the settlements.

Slovianka, Dnipropetrovsk region