Foxley Bluebells

This time last year, I was really sad - I had managed to miss the overwhelming displays of bluebells in Foxley Woods by a week. This year, I made sure I didn't miss them; I visited once a week for the last three weeks, seeing the bluebells and indicator flower species at varying stages.

We first visited on 19th April. The blue of the knodding heads was just starting to emerge and the intoxicating sweet smell was only evident at point blank range. Wood anemones and wood sorrel were in full bloom, their open white/pink faces all the more obvious amongst the blue and green of the woodland floor.

Our walk had the sound track of chiff chaffs and was painted the blue of bluebells, the white and pink of wood anemones and wood sorrel and the yellow of the few remaining primroses.

When I returned the following weekend, the blue was all the more intense for the overcast sky and little sunlight penetrating the woodland. The bluebells were now at the stage where you could walk around a corner and be hit by a wave of their perfume, smelling almost like nothing else.

Our last visit, on 4th May, saw the bluebells at their showiest. It was the busiest we had ever seen the woods. Usually, ours is one of only two or three cars in the carpark, but today, it was overflowing, as it probably had been all weekend. A sure sign that the flowers were in full bloom and calling to all those who could hear them.

The blue was now so intense that I kept having to double-take the woodland floor, such an alien colour to be surrounding us in all directions - surely it should all be a greeny brown, not such a rich and showy colour!? The sunlight hitting the floor did not bleach them out, as expected, but made the contrast to the dark and mossy trees all the more apparent, and made the bluebells stand out all the more, not that they needed any help.

This has to be one of my favourite and most treasured wildlife spectacles. One that I am determined not to miss again.