When Spring comes around again, one of its greatest pleasures in southern England is to go and see the bluebells that carpet the woodlands with a hazy blue.
They are prolific in hazel woods, which in turn are prolific around here, and usually have been coppiced for centuries, providing a perfect bluebell environment.
Coppicing is an ancient method of woodland management that involves cutting the trees back almost to the ground every few years, so that they re-grow with thin straight branches. This gives a nearly everlasting supply of wood for building, fencing and tool-making.
Another advantage of coppicing is that it ensures the light canopy and dappled sunlight that bluebells prefer, so they become really well established: sometimes the colonies have been growing for hundreds of years, and cover many acres.
And I have never seen them lovelier than they were today on the Downs of West Sussex.
Take a look:
See what I mean?
And here are the Downs, that I love so much, probably because I was born among them.
A Down is a rounded, chalky, and largely treeless hill in southern England, with the same Old English root as "dune", as in sand dune.
I wrote about my favourite Down, and my Dad, here: A Magic Summer Evening Long Ago.
More on Bluebells, which, as you might expect, are under threat from invasive species.
More on Bluebells, which, as you might expect, are under threat from invasive species.
