A Promise Fulfilled

On Friday morning I saw a swallow - was that a good omen? But then I recall Aristotle said 'one swallow doth not a summer make'. 

The spring weather has been mercurial, however, there's nothing I can do to change it. I have made a promise to show some English bluebells to a blogger? one who has travelled all the way from Australia - everything should be well as long as it doesn't rain.

 The Bluebell is the sweetest flower

 That waves in summer air; 

Its blossoms have the mightiest power 

To soothe my spirit's care....Emily Brontë 

Once you know what to look for it is easy to recognise a British bluebell from the rather ubiquitous Spanish ones, which are a hug threat to our native bells.

As British bluebells mature their stems become distinctly blue and droop to one side from the top, Spanish ones stand upright and are green. Our bluebells are a rich blue, Spanish ones are a paler shade of blue. British bells have cream stamens, Spanish ones are blue. The bells on the British flowers are long and narrow and softly curl at the their ends. Spanish ones have wide open bells which do not curl. The problem arises when Spanish bells, which happen to be much more vigorous, hybridise with ours. Hybridised bell flowers contain a mixture of both bells making them difficult to identify and they are even more vigorous than the Spanish ones.

I feel passionate about protecting our bluebell woods from the Spanish threat, once they are gone, they will be lost forever.

Let's continue through the wood and see a bit more blue magic.

Bluebells are mainly found in broadleaved woodlands. The trees newly emerging leaves create the perfect dappled shade that bluebells love without preventing the sunlight from filtering through.

Bluebells are a good indicator that you are walking in ancient woodland 

That's mission accomplished without any rain. The weather is so topsy turvy - now we have a heatwave!

Here's Wendy a happy blogger. 

We spent a really lovely day together.