A walk in the bluebell woods

We had arranged to meet up today with friends, originally for a picnic and walk in our favourite woods (good for bluebells - normally it might be a little late for them by the May Bank Holiday, but everything is late this year due to the dire winter). As the weekend approached and the weather forecast got increasingly yuck, plans were changed from picnicking to a pub lunch, with the walk to follow unless there was a real deluge. Which, happily, there was not.




Here's the view from the pub window - nice view of the South Downs. So, we ate, and in due course, walked, with only a small drizzle of rain. The walking is fairly dry underfoot, despite the rain, due to the chalk hills, so at least it wasn't at all muddy.

Bluebells were indeed spotted, as can be seen in the top photo - they never look quite as magnificent in photos as they do in person in the woods, I think, but you get the general idea.




Here's one chap a bit closer up,



and another thing I love this time of year, ferns, bracken and other plants just unfurling.



And a snail - Helix pomatia, the Roman or edible snail. Apparently the Romans brought them over (a staple food) and now, they roam the South Downs. In as much as a snail roams.... One of our friends is a biologist with a PhD in snails (not this snail, as it happens, a different type) so we had fun searching for them in the undergrowth. There was a lot of turning rotting logs over to examine the bugs underneath, as well, which is good fun. It would have been nice if it had been nice enough to picnic, but after all, you can't have everything --where would you put it?