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Why is an Australian girl wandering around the woods of East Kent photographing our native species of the Bluebell?

I think we should be told!

;o)

Lovely! Thanks Sheila and just ignore DiY. Bluebells just coming out here too and transforming the woodlands with their hazy mauve-blue carpet.

Must be time for a polka!

booootiful! :-) what a beautiful world we live, i feel very grateful! :-D

I just dug some up from my garden yesterday. There a bloomin' nuisance! They look nice in a wood though. Not the Spanish ones the Victorians imported cause they withstood the air pollution from those dark satanic mills...and did those feet in ancient times...

How lovely Sheila. Apologies for DIY - he can be very rude. There is a beautiful bluebell meadow near us in Dorset at Kingston Lacey - I must take some pictures when I get over there.

...in Dorset at Kingston Lacey - I must take some pictures when I get over there.....Oh you get out on day release then!

My son has moved to Gloucestershire and bought some bluebells for his garden. Yet I shall be digging up bluebells in my garden, after they have flowered, as they multiply and spread like, well, wild plants.
When I was growing up we used to pick bluebells and take them home, no one thought anything about it, they were so abundant.
A few years ago on the way to visit my mum I went via the back roads and past a bluebell wood. We had to stop and just stand there under the dappled sunlight with a carpet of bluebells at our feet. I wish I had taken my camera.
Of course times have changed and we did not pick any of the flowers.

Looternite, bluebells are actually quite rare and protected in Northern Ireland. I hope you aren't throwing them away...

9. jonnie

They are bound to be rare in Northern Ireland as bluebells are not aquatic plants. :-)

jonnie - I didn't know that they were particularly rare here. I'll be visting over the weekend to see if there is any sign of them yet. Probably a bit too early. As for protection, wild bluebells are protected throughout the UK.

:-)

I've also had to keep thinning out bluebells in my garden over the years. Usually, they're the Spanish ones, and when our native bluebells seed themselves, I'm always careful to leave them in situ.

Today I passed a number of patches of bluebells. Like Looternite, I have childhood memories of picking great bunches of them from the woods, and can remember the disappointment of how short a lifespan they have once picked. All the more reason for letting them grow unpicked!

We have bluebells, whitebells, and pinkbells.

14. davmcn

...and Cockle shells and pretty maids all in a row. :-)

Ln 15, There are some mussel shells.

Fond memories of walking the dog along the North Downs as a youngster. Then they built that bloody motorway and not even the beauty of Bluebells could salvage the horrid roar of noise that invaded my childhood.

Re: Patrick Too, The tyre and noise from roads is not given the awareness it deserves. Sound can travel many miles aided by the wind and it's increasingly more difficult to find tranquil places where the true sounds of nature can be appreciated.

Sheila: I lived in East Kent as a small child, and one of my abiding memories is of being taken, with my mother and a neighbour, to a wood in the area which was full of bluebells. We came home with the car boot full (or so it seemed) of flowers. It wasn't illegal then, and I now feel rather ashamed of that childhood adventure, but I will never forget it, or the delight they brought a little girl.

I took my aged parent on a tour of the Hertfordshire back roads past the wooded areas off the beaten track. The carpets of bluebells were magnificent and as Big Sister said previously they were best left alone.

This tour triggered such a flow of distant memories of my mum's childhood. It was interesting that one memory connected to bluebells led to other memories of her dad and school days.

20. Looternite

Likewise a journey earlier this week onto Bringewood and Mary Knoll and Gorsty behind Ludlow and seeing the Bluebells out there invoked very strong memories of my childhood and having to try and reign in our rather exuberant Beagle bitch by the name of Quinn.

The Mighty Quinn, DiY?

The very same!

She was named that, not only because she was one of four but I was a big fan of Dylan and Manfred Man.

(wot ever happened to the sixties?)

:-)

A gorgeous picture! I have a bluebell wood background on my computer.
We have just been in the Forest of Dean, which enjoys fantastic bluebell woods, as well I remember from my childhood. But even in boring Fenland where we have played pitch and putt today we went by some bluebells with their lovely smell. :) :) :)

I sent PM a photo of the blue, pink, and white bluebells in our garden, but it hasn't appeared yet. Copies available.

DiY, I'd never have thought you'd have been a magic roundabout fellow? Dav, look forward to seeing your blue, pink and white bluebells.

jonnie 26, Where?

25 dav
You're no Sheila.

ld 28, At least my photo was taken this week, not five years ago.

So you say ... but PM hasn't posted your photo so we'll never know for sure.

I sent it to one poster here. Now I'll send it to another. They can confirm...or not.

Oh dear ... apologies to all concerned.

:o)

ld, There, I scent it.

30. lucien desgai

I can confirm it is a very fine photo of some very fine Bluebells, PinkBells and Whitebells.

Ln 34, 'Kew.

I keep on logging in here with the hope of seeing a rainbow coloured field from David.... ;-)

jonnie, Don't overhope.

....dav's garden's not that big ;o)

Gill 38, 175 feet long and the width of the house.

38. Gillianian

Dav's garden can be seen from space. ;-)

Ln 40, How many sheds?

Ln 40, We were at our favorite rural pub yesterday, you know the one I mean, because a man does a BBQ from yesterday until October each Sunday. £3.50 for a burger or sausage and two kinds of salad, drinks not included. A complete stranger came up to us a chatted for over an hour and even bought us a drink. You don't think it was DiY, do you?

42. davmcn

I shouldn't think so as the rural pub you are refering to is a bit off the beaten track.

Ln 43, But it was quite busy.

44 davmcn

We must meet up there some time. Although, the Bluebells will be gone very soon.

I'll let you know the next Sunday we will be there (by email).

The BBQ starts at 2.15.

Because that's when the pub itself stops serving food.

46, 47 and 48 davmcn

Thanks.

Ln 49, I see where the Beckhams might move to Wheathampstead.

50. davmcn

I hadn't heard that.
Is there anywhere in Weeampstead big enough or posh enough for the Beckhams.

Ln 51, Apparently the club house at Lamerwood Golf Course. in Codicote Road. Unless a superinjunction prevents me from saying this.

52. davmcn
It seems that the whole golf course is up for sale. So the Beckhams could spend some of their small change on this.
It's not the golf course that George Bernard Shaw frequented, however.

Ln 53, We visited Shaw's house and saw his beehives, but not his golf clubs. No Martha Kearney in sight.

54. davmcn
Were there any Bluebells?

Ln 55 I think it was the wrong time of year.

Bluebells are a transient thing ... as is reality ... and so:

Quantum Theory According To Camels ...


I bought some quantum wellies, which I thought was expeditious,
But as a consequence my life's become somewhat capricious.
To plan too far ahead would tend to be over ambitious,
For now I find most outcomes seem to end up as fictitious.


Hey! What's that camel doing in my pyjamas?

In my garden it's the primroses that are taking over. You can pick those and they last for ages in water.

Everything seems to be a week or two ahead down here in the South. I've just taken these snaps of our garden

j Show off...

j Does it take any special program to do that?

Dav, Just Facebook David. You should join it and we could all comment on your Bluebells...

NorthernJim - the pyjamas from your wardrobe - or the ones you're wearing?