Field of Blue 2024

Despite walking being difficult this year, due to a knee injury, we couldn't miss the bluebells in Norsey Wood.  As I do most years, here is a selection of photos we have taken.  The wood was busy, it was a bright, warm day and the weather forecast was not good for the next few days.  It was also the last day of the Easter Holidays.  

It is not just bluebell that are beautiful at this time of year, there are plenty of other woodland flowers to admire.

The light blue of the forget-me-nots fades into the darker blue of the bluebells

 

An attempt to show the carpet of blue that covers the woodland floor.

The blue Green Alkanet flowers cannot provide a carpet of blue look because they are small compared to the rest of the plant.  The bees love them.

A single darker flower showing the inside of the blooms a little.

The blue haze that the bluebells create behind the visitor centre is one of my favourite places.

The occasional broom bushes provide some good contrast to the overall blue-green look.  The ladybirds love them.  There seem to be a lot of ladybirds this year.  They also love the nettles.

The forget-me-nots are beautiful too.

The wood anemones provide some white contrast, but they are on the wain but now.

Pl@ntNet identifies this as Adders meat, or possibly Meadow starwort.  There are some lovely patches of these white flowers.

The shot was taken upside-down, as I couldn't bend low enough.  It is an attempt to get a bees-eye-view.

The celandine are almost finished, they have not had a good year this year.

Field of Blue 2022

Towards the end of April, it is time to visit the bluebells once again.  Since my last visit in 2019, a lot has happened in the woods.  There has been a lot of thinning out and in some areas it doesn't look much like a wood, more like a wasteland.

I tried to generate a wide picture from three that I'd taken, but the scaling is all wrong, that's what you get for using an automatic camera, I guess. 

However, there are some good bluebells in other parts of the wood.  Here are two patches where the blue field can be easily seen.

This year, the wood anemones are still in bloom, so there are places where the white is more visible than the blue.

It's the first year in quite a while that we haven't had a dog to distract us on our walk, and it's the first year I've come without Jo, who is currently recovering from a calf strain.  That means I can combine the visit with my morning walk.

Unusually, it is morning and the light is different, so the bluebells look paler this year, or perhaps there's another explanation.

I tried a few close-ups, these are the best: 

Forget-me-nots also provide a field of blue, there are small clumps around the building, but none elsewhere.

I zoomed in to this little clump from quite a distance.

These were not drooped over, like most of the clumps, so it's a chance to get a close up and see how 'macro' mode is working.

I've been visiting Norsey Wood at this time of year almost every year since 2008, here's the original post https://3cephas-notes.blogspot.com/2008/05/field-of-blue.html.

Field of Blue 2019

Easter Sunday is early for a visit to the bluebells.  This year Easter is late, but the bluebells are early.  We were near the start of the season so the all pervading blueness is not really established yet.  Most of these pictures are technically in gardens backing on to the wood, but they are still impressive.  I have created an album here https://photos.app.goo.gl/KDh8R3JyeyyXp7oc8.

We had taken a very different route, mainly to get our Labrador off the hard path that has been laid - great for people, bad for dogs.   So we didn't see all the usual sites.

This location is usually one of the best, if we get a chance we will go back and see how they have developed

Field of Blue 2018

I used to think Bluebells were just some bulbs that came up in spring. Where I lived then had plenty, but it wasn't like Norsey Wood, where there is such a glorious display.  In the last ten years we've got to see them almost every year.  This year, as often happens, we get there when the flowers are just beginning to die off.  Here are this year's pictures, all done on my phone.

	Perhaps it is the very odd spring we have had this year, occasional very hot days and lots of rain, but they seem to be a paler blue.  They also seem more concentrated in certain areas, so the title isn't quite so accurate.  More clumps than fields.
This is my favourite view this year, the carpet leading to the back of the visitor centre.

Field of Blue 2017

On Easter Saturday (15th April), late in the afternoon we visited Norsey Wood, in Billericay, to see the Blubells.  We do this most years, but rarely this early - normally we wait for the first May bank holiday.  This year though, it has been warm and very dry, so the blubells are already up and flowering.  The wood anenomies are also good this year, making a carpet of white that can look like snow on the ground from a distance.  The fields of blue are the most impressive, here are some pictures, taken on my phone this year.

Most of them are taken from the easy access path, so most people should be able to visit.  I included the notice beacuse it is easy to see the damage that has been caused in a few places by people walking across them.

The bluebells have been spectacular in Mill Meadows this year too, although there are nowhere near as many of them.

Field of Blue 2015

Since we first started doing a walk around Norsey Woods to see the bluebells in 2008 a lot has changed in the wood.  A lot has changed for us too, we have a dog to take with us now - a that reduces the time we spend looking at things - partly due to having to get him out of the water.  Even though it has been unseasonably warm and dry for the early party of April and is only now returning to seasonal temperatures the wood is still bursting into life.  The bluebells are almost over for another year, as I have noted in other posts early May is really a little late, late April is better.  It just shows what a fleeting pleasure walking through the woods at bluebell time really is.

These days we park in Norsey Road and walk down the long path to the marked route, turning right we usually go right round the circular path and back to the entrance.  This year we took a slightly different route and returned to Deer Bank, there was then a long walk up the road.  I would have preferred to be in the woods, but we had walked slowly and covered three miles, so there wasn't time for more exploring.

The bluebells seem darker this year, blue, going on purple, we speculate that this is due to the warm dry weather, but we are only guessing.
  Compare this clump:

with these from 2013

The rest of today's photos (only a few) are here: https://plus.google.com/photos/116754502311393769821/albums/6144371713232246385

Field of Blue '13

Thursday evening on a spur of the moment decision, we took Brody to see the bluebells in Norsey Woods.  I'm more clued-up this year because I have the bluebells in Mill Meadow, where I regularly take Brody as a guide.  There are only a few bluebells in Mill Meadow, but there are loads in Norsey Woods.  We had not been in the evening before, the shades of blue seem darker, and as you peer under the trees the blue really stands out.  Brody though is not at all interested in bluebells whatsoever, they clearly do not have an inviting scent for a dog.

We walked around the red route, joining from the path that leads to Norsey Road.
Here is Brody walking along one of the main paths, with the blue hue under the trees in the background.

Patches grow on the side of paths, but rarely right on the edge:

This is just off the easy access path coming up behind the visitor centre, there's almost always a good show here, but in other places it depends on the phase of management.  The barrow area was great a few years ago immediately after it was cut back, but the new low growth means the bluebells are not visible now.

No bluebells here, this is the old WWI practice trench, which has recently been cleared to make it more visible.  Norsey woods is full of history, the barrow is old, this is more recent (almost a century old) and will probably not be visible in a couple of thousand years.

These bluebells are growing in a recently cut area.

I really love the way that the blue disappears into the wood.

Two close-ups.  I tried to get a picture looking up into the flower, but my picture skills were not up to it.  Maybe next year.

The paths in the wood seem more worn than I have ever seen them, which presumably means there have been more visitors, which in a way is a good thing.

Field of Blue '11

Easter Sunday is an excellent time to go out and enjoy God's creation.  Jo and I took Brody for a walk in Norsey Woods.  It was a beautiful day - warm and dry, we have had quite a few of those lately, so the bluebells were near the end of their best.  Nevertheless, they are stunning.  Each year, there is a different place to look to get the best views of the carpet of blue.  Norsey woods is managed and coppiced, so different areas are opened up each year to allow new growth.  This year, one of the best views was from the barrow.  There we met a man sitting enjoying the view.  Brody said hello and on his request I took a photo of him with Brody in the background.  We discussed the state of the bluebells and agreed that this year was not as good as last year.  I also noticed that my two previous reports on bluebells were both later in the year.

Beside bluebells, other things are also doing well in the wood, take a look at the album to see what.

https://photos.google.com/album/AF1QipPUEzNRqNrfngxwT5KNHSb8mpr_2P9YYdB-lK1v

We spent about an or so hour enjoying the woods, letting small children stroke Brody - who was much more interested in his stick or the tennis ball that someone had found and given him.  We met a few people from church as we were leaving who had come to enjoy the woods.