12 May - Hunting the wild bluebells

One of the iconic symbols of spring in the UK is the beautiful swaths of bluebells in the woodlands. (photo from National Trust website)

We're here. It's spring. Let's find the bluebells! There are lots of places to view them and after a bit of research I discovered that Brampton Wood is relatively close to Barrington, about 40 minutes by car, and is known for its bluebells.

Bruce found a couple of other woodlands closer to us, so we drove to one of those, Hardwick Wood, first. Or at least we tried. I don't know if it was an issue with our GPS or if it's a case of needing local knowledge to find it, but when the GPS announced, "You have reached your destination" we were puzzled to see that we were on a road with no wood in sight. Okay, let's try the next one, Hayley Wood. Same thing. So off we went to Brampton Wood. We found the small carpark, went through the gate and started down the path called the Main Ride. We saw lots of beautiful trees and some wildflowers. In fact, Brampton Wood is quite an historic place. It's at least 900 years old and was even mentioned in the Doomsday Book. The trees include aspen, oak, ash, field maple and birch and it provides a habitat for many birds and mammals, including dormice. What we didn't see, however, was a lovely swath of bluebells. We ran into some folks walking their dogs and asked if they'd seen any bluebells up the ride. They said no, that it was a bit late for bluebells. We walked on, avoiding the mud and spotting the odd bluebell here and there, but were disappointed that our timing was off.

At a couple of spots along the way we found what looked like lifeguard stands. How curious. I wonder what they're for.

No bluebells, but a lovely walk on a very sunny day. On the way out of the gate, I saw a small sign that announced that bluebell season had passed. Kind of wish I'd seen that on the way in.

We stopped at the Hare and the Hounds pub on the way home. It's a simple little pub with a great backstory. The pub in this village of about 300 people closed. 160 villagers invested

in the pub and it's now officially owned by the community. Bruce would fit in well here.

Back at the cottage I did a bit more work on my coat, enjoyed the company of little Blanchie, then watched the Bafta TV awards.