Bluebells

It's late spring here in the UK, and the bluebells are out in force. We are fortunate to be given National Trust passes every year for Christmas from my parents, so yesterday we put them to good use and took ourselves off to Grey's Court.

We don't usually go inside the houses during our National Trust visits, preferring instead the Great Outdoors. The blue trail on the map went through the bluebell woods so off we went.

The trail was a couple of miles long, we got "lost" a few times on the way, and it was pretty muddy in a lot of places, but the sun was out, the trail was very quiet and still, and we were happy to follow our little band of Intrepid Explorers.

My main mission for the day was to see the bluebells ..... and boy were there bluebells......

Beautiful carpets of bluebells as far as the eye could see. The Little People really had a great time, Little Man made a bow and arrows .....

Little Miss and I made some grass jewellery .....

And Little Tomboy found lots of sticks - some bigger than she is!

Best of all towards the end of our walk we found a rope-swing :) Is there anything that embodies good wholesome outdoorsy healthy natural fun more than a ropeswing that you happen upon by chance ?

We made our way back to the main house and other buildings, including - of course - the tea room. Sandwiches all round please! What ? You have no sandwiches left ? Oh dear, it will have to be cream teas for 5 then ! My phone had run out of charge by this point so you will have to imagine the mountain of scones that hubby bought - 8 massive scones, with jam and cream, between the 5 of us! We did attract a few amused looks from other visitors :)

I took a few pictures of the formal gardens (on hubby's phone) ....

There's an old fort - more of a tower really - that hubby and the kids went off to climb. This is the view from the top, and that is me that you can see through the tree, on the bench awaaaaaay down on the ground, enjoying the sun and wishing I had brought my crochet with me :)

I'm always delighted to see how much fun the Little People get from being outside with nature. These days they seem to spend more and more time on electronic devices indoors, and its wonderful to watch them exploring, building dens, playing with sticks, noticing snails and butterflies, and generally being just how children should be.

All in all a lovely lovely day. We arrived home around teatime - all that exploring makes one hungry you know, then bedtime for the Little People, and, for me, a sit down with my crochet at last - my current WIP - a blanket for my cousin's new baby, Jacob :)

I'm really really really hoping to get it finished this week and get it in the post , so watch this space :)