Strolling Through our English Bluebell Woods (Film)

Thursday 8th May 2014.
       During the past 2 weeks we've enjoyed the magical spectacle of being able to stroll through the delights of our local Bluebell woods here in N.W. England.  Having photographed them I then decided to record this annual event on video, so armed with my H.D video camera we retraced our walks and recorded our local wild flower speciality.

Rocks and Soils of West Yorkshire

Monday 5th May 2014
                During the last few days we've walked in areas within a 20 miles radius of our home in East Lancashire. Depending on the aspect and altitude of our walks it's made a great difference to the glorious Bluebell displays we've seen. Some have been fully out for more than a week whilst others in the cloughs and deep valleys of the Pennines are just starting to open, so the floral displays in these various locations really do extend the season.
              What is also very noticeable is the types of rock in our area, the alkaline limestone woods carry many more flowers amongst the Bluebells compared to the hard acidic millstone grit woodland areas.

           

A mixture of Early Purple Orchid, Primrose,Cowslip and Anemone growing in the alkaline soil amongst the Bluebells

      Compare this to the acid soil woodlands around Hebden Bridge in the deeper valleys and cloughs

The bluebells are only just opening in these colder Pennine valleys and the only flower growing amongst them with any merit is the Pink Purslane

If the valley lacks the variety of flowers it makes up for it with the dozens of Hairy Wood Ant nests around Gibsons Mill at Hard Castle Crags

 A quick sketch in oils looked looked quite accomplished from this distance

Which type of woodland do I prefer?, there's no easy answer but I think I,ll go for the Limestone Woodland because of the variety of flora

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Limestone Woodland

Sunday 4th May 2014
                    Yesterday was another lovely spring day perfect for a visit to the limestone woodlands around Feizer in Yorkshire  I didn't take many pictures because I was concentrating on film shots for my Bluebell film. The woodland floor was covered with a mixture of Bluebells,Primroses,Cowslips,Wood Anemone and Early Purple Orchids.  Over the years we've looked for a flower that up to now has always eluded us, the unusual flower......HERB PARIS, it's not a particular rare flower but it's taken us over 20 years to find it, but yesterday we found it growing along a lane towards the end of our walk.

                                      Early Purple Orchids

                                         Wood Anemone

                        Walkers couldn't resist taking a picture

                                    The elusive Herb Paris