In Search of Bluebells

May is bluebell month here in the UK. I have been hearing about bluebells for a while, and how beautiful they are when you find a woods full of them. (We had bluebells in Boston, too, although they were different than these ones.)

Anyway, I looked up good places to go see bluebells and last week we picked up Justin's friend and his mom and went to see them. We chose to go to Woodchester Park, which turned out to be a beautiful place about an hour drive away. We did see some bluebells, but the dominant flower was instead a wild white one which we couldn't identify. Later my friend told me it was wild garlic.

They also had an adventure trail for kids, with swings, zip lines, and other things for kids to play on as they hiked. The kids liked that. Justin, having inherited his father's and great-great-grandfather's love for climbing things, also enjoyed running up a steep hill. Going downhill and flat he complained the whole time, but as soon as the slope got steep (in the upwards direction) he got a big smile and literally started running up the hill. I did not keep up. In fact, I was not even close enough to take a picture. You'll just have to take my word for it.


Here he is happy at the top. It was a really steep hill, and he wasn't even winded a bit. I'm thinking hiking with him (and his father) is going to be quite a project in the coming years...Good thing I've started working out again!


Here are the kids enjoying various parts of the adventure hike:




And here are the pretty white flowers (anyone know if they are, indeed, wild garlic?)



More swinging and adventuring...



See those bluebells hiding in there amongst all the white below? They are pretty, but there weren't too many here.


It was a good day, even if the bluebells weren't as bluebell-y as I had hoped. A few days later the kids and I set out from our place to explore a new part of our village footpaths. We entered a wooded area after going through a beautiful valley, and saw a huge field of bluebells. The time from our front door was approximately ten minutes on foot. The kids have not stopped teasing me about our hour-long drive in search of bluebells when it turns out we live among them! I have not had the camera any time we've one through our own bluebell woods, so you will have to imagine how pretty they are.

Comments

  1. Hopefully this comment won’t show up three times. I accidentally signed out of my account and can’t figure out how to sign back in.
    In any case, what I wrote, three times, was, sounds like a pretty and fun place, and that Jim also likes going up long steep hills, especially on his bike. I have good stamina for long uphill stretches but prefer a bit less steep than I used to.
    And, I said, I’m glad it seems you’ve found a way to both work out and blog!

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    1. Just showed up once! I don't mind going up hills myself, but I am not as fast as my boys, and I get winded! I haven't found a way to do both...I didn't work out Monday and Tuesday, and today I'm blogging while cooking dinner, which is probably not a long-term solution...But as my mom always says, "Where there's a will there's a way," so I'll figure it out somehow!

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