The lowlands are densely forested with fir, pine, oak, beach, birch, and maple.

FORBES: Harmony In The State Of Maine

One mile from town by car or on foot is a family-friendly beach lined with colourful beach huts and backed by dunes and pine woodland.

BBC: Mini guide to coastal Norfolk

The latter is a wonderful pick, visible through the trees as you make the short hike over a pine-needle-carpeted trail, edged by a tiny sandy beach (many of the ponds have no beach to speak of), and home to a bevy of quick-footed green frogs and one remarkably tame snapping turtle.

FORBES: Wellfleet Ponds Are Secret Cape Cod Treasures

We thumbed our phones trying to getting a signal, exchanged texts and surfed Twitter for storm updates, both for our location in lower Westchester County in New York, and for the traditional summer stomping grounds of Beach Haven, New Jersey, a spot of barrier island off the pine barrens where my toes have met sand and salt since the 1960s.

FORBES: The Big Lesson of #Sandy: Connectivity Matters in an Emergency

Pine seeds swept into Zambales, giving birth to an alien nation of evergreen trees on a tropical beach more likely to host a string of palms.

BBC: The Philippines�� secret sanctuary