7 May 2016

Bluebells

I love to see bluebells at this time of year. They do not last for very long but when in bloom they create surreal swathes of purpled blueness - like fairytale mists swirling in the dappled shadows of secret woods. A wondrous sight to behold.

Yesterday, as I was walking in the borderlands between north east Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire, I happened to pass through Graves Wood near Whaley Thorns. Even from afar, I could see a blue haze beneath the trees and when I entered the wood the sight before me was stunning. Thousands of bluebells carpeting the woodland floor.

In the past, I have always found it difficult to capture bluebell woods effectively with my camera. They have an elusive quality so that you never quite catch the colour and the light or the visual splendour that the human eye observes. But I tried again before carrying on with my walk - to Holbeck, last resting place of The Dukes of Portland. And now I share these bluebell pictures with you free of charge.

30 comments:

  1. A cracking job. I particularly admire the penultimate one.

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    1. To get a little pat on the back from you is worth a lot Adrian.

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  2. I agree with Adrian. I've tried to capture bluebells with my camera and the image never quite lives up to the reality.

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    1. I think it is the woodland shadows that makes it difficult.

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  3. So lovely ...and I consider myself very lucky to have seen them. They are one of the things that I have grown up reading about - bluebells and daffodils - and they are just as I imagined they would be. The best thing about England is the flowers in the countryside in my opinion. Simply stunning !

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    1. I heard that you and Tony skipped through a bed of English daffodils singing "Tra-lee tra-lah!" just before you were arrested.

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  4. How very beautiful....tranquility personified.

    I was about to post you off some cash, but then I read that these beauties are generously offered free of charge. :)

    Wonderful photos, Yorkie...I particularly like the last one...the path fringed with bluebells looks most inviting.

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    1. "How very beautiful....tranquility personified." People often say that about me Lee!

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    2. Are you sure, YP?
      Seriously, lovely photos and a perfect day. You're photos (and text) are a good advert for visiting Britain.

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    3. I mean your - not you're !

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    4. Naughty girl! See me in my study for extra tuition!

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    5. Yes....I've often heard that be said, Yorkie; but I didn't want to tell you in case it went to your head.

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  5. Lovely! Reminds me of the bluebonnets in Texas, but those are always in March and April.

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    1. Ah yes, I remember when you skipped through the bluebonnets with your childhood sweetheart. I wonder where she is now.

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  6. Wow! Those are stunning!

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    1. I wish you could have been there... with Gregg's approval of course!

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  7. Beautiful! I've never been to an official "bluebell wood" -- just seen clumps of them here and there on the Heath. (And in our back garden!)

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    1. Graves Wood is a wild bluebell wood Steve. Nobody else was there - just me and a cock pheasant.

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  8. Like Lee, I particularly like the last picture. And like Lee, "inviting" was the word that came to mind as soon as I saw that bluebell-fringed path.
    Every year I say that I will make it to Yorkshire one year to see the bluebells, and every year I am way too late (and occasionally, I have been too early).

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    1. You never know for sure when they will be at their best. I was lucky to hit upon that wood yesterday afternoon.

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  9. Enchanting YP .. simply enchanting.

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  10. Thank you YP...beautiful to look at, although the sight of a bluebell wood always makes me feel a little guilty...when I was very young the council estate I lived on backed onto farm and wood land...and once a whole army of us council house kids came upon the sight of these lovely flowers for the first time and decided to take them home to our hard working moms......we ferried back and forth with armfuls of the things and filled milk bottles, cups, glasses buckets ... anything at all with these beautiful free flowers!..how sad for the farmer and everybody else that we 'let loose with a bottle of water and a jam sandwich for the day' kids were like ants and picked our way through the pretty woods leaving nothing behind....I'm still ashamed of doing that........

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    1. At last after all these years you have confessed to such a heinous crime against Nature. Fortunately you didn't pull up the bluebells with their bulbous roots so no doubt the flowers would have burst forth once more the following spring.

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  11. Hey, I have a few of these at my back door. A whole forest of them would be awesome.

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    1. With a Canadian teacher's pension, I am sure you are so wealthy you could buy your own forest Red.

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  12. It reminds me of the Bluebell Woods near us when I was a child. There is something very special indeed about such places.

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    1. I suppose that part of the beauty of the bluebell haze is that it doesn't last for very long.

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  13. Yes, we love things that are scarce. Novelty… When I was 11 on my trip with my parents to England we had to see the bluebell woods of course. I picked three and squashed them in the front page of my diary. One of the two highlights of the 8 months we were away.

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  14. Another blogger posted a few photos of Bluebells beautiful.
    I am amazed that you get to see this every year. I have always wanted to see them.
    Nearest I have gotten to see something like that is when the California Poppies bloom. Huge sides of mountains and valleys covered with yellow/orange poppies around the rocks.

    cheers, parsnip

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