Bluebells

Tags

blackthorn, bluebells, Bugle, common backswimmer, Common Frog, coppice, early purple orchids, great crested newt, Herb-Robert, Lesser Celandines, primroses, Reydon Wood, Suffolk, Suffolk Wildlife Trust, sweet violets, walking, water-violet, wild strawberry, wildflowers

I love bluebells, as you no doubt have realised by now, and I don’t think I am alone in my love of these flowers.  There is a scene in the film ‘Howard’s End’ that has one of the main characters walking through a bluebell wood – I find it very moving.

We try to visit a bluebell wood each Spring and this year we re-visited Reydon Wood on a beautiful Thursday afternoon in early May.

Elinor walking down the path towards the wood.

Last year we mistimed our visits, with one visit a little too early and another a little too late.  This visit was ‘just right’.

The trees were just beginning to put on their beautiful spring clothes.

I peeped through the bars of a gate from the path and saw my first bluebells (Hyacinthoides non-scripta).

Sweet Violets (Viola odorata) were growing at the side of the path, as were Alexanders (Smyrnium olusatrum) and Greater Stitchwort (Stellaria holostea) but my photos of them were over-exposed.

There is a very deep ditch between the path and the wood (you can see the far bank of the ditch at the bottom of the photo)

The ditch was originally dug many centuries ago in an attempt to keep deer out of this coppiced wood.  The bottom of the ditch may have had heaps of brush-wood in it as well as water to make crossing it more difficult.

This is a Wild Strawberry flower (Fragaria vesca) – not a good photo I’m afraid.

Herb-Robert (Geranium robertianum)

A mossy tree-stump

More Sweet Violets

The path through the woods

Lesser Celandines (Ranunculus ficaria)

Primroses (Primula vulgaris)

Both Celandines and Primroses had already flowered and gone to seed in the lanes near to my home, but the woods are darker, cooler places and the plants flower later and last longer.

Bugle (Ajuga reptans) flower spikes

An open ride in the wood with stacks of the harvested timber.

The pond in the wood

A Common Backswimmer (Nononecta glauca)

This might be a female Great Crested Newt (Triturus cristatus)

A Common Frog (Rana temporaria)

Water-violet (Hottonia palustris)

There are a mass of these Water-violets round the pond

Early Purple Orchid (Orchis mascula)  Unfortunately not in focus, though you can clearly see its spotted leaves.

A large coppice stool

Another Early Purple Orchid

Large amounts of brushwood have been stacked around an area that has been newly coppiced in an effort to keep the deer (and people, I expect) away from the new shoots growing from the stools.

This is a typical view of a coppiced wood

Here is a gallery of photos of the bluebells in Reydon Wood.

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I love to look up at the sky through the new leaves

Blackthorn blossom (Prunus spinosa)

Thanks for visiting!