I grew up in the Yorkshire Dales, an area where bluebell woods are relatively easy to find. I lived for a while in a part of East Yorkshire where such places were rather more distant. During my time in Lancashire they weren't too difficult to locate. But, when I moved to the Fens I soon discovered that a bluebell wood has to be actively sought out. But no more!
One of our winter activities was to convert an area of gravel garden to meadow and join it up with an area of lawn that would also become part of the same meadow. This more natural grassland with its wild flowers already had an apple tree and a plum tree, and in late winter we planted more fruit trees. The result of all our work is that several trees now stand in an area of long or longish grass that we, rather grandly, call our meadow and orchard. Dog daisies and poppies are growing up through the grass and will flower in June. Other flowers have been sown and we are hoping to see cornflowers and much more as the months pass. However, I'd forgotten about the number of bluebells that grew under the apple tree, and during the past couple of weeks they have made an appearance. I think there are more than last year but that's often the way with these bulbs, especially if they've been disturbed by digging.
It's a little fanciful to describe what we have as a bluebell wood, but it has some of the elements of one. Consequently I mounted my 100mm macro lens on the camera and took a few shots of the flowers, grass and tree trunks in the deepening shade of the early evening sunlight. I almost felt transported back to those scenes of my youth.
photograph and text © Tony Boughen
Camera: Canon
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 100mm macro
F No: f2.8
Shutter Speed: 0.6 sec
ISO: 100
Exposure Compensation: -0.33 EV
Image Stabilisation: On
