Bluebells

We had a nice day out yesterday with just the two youngest children as Ryan went to watch Southend United play. We went up to the bluebell woods in Langdon, where we always miss the bluebells, but thankfully managed to catch them in bloom this year.




















It felt so good to get out in the sunshine. As you can see, I took far too many photos. There was actually 100 of them, so you've all had a lucky escape with this small selection. We went to the beach for an ice cream afterwards, then went to the garden centre for my growbags. May is here, so it's tomato time!

I had a bit of a shock yesterday, and I'm grieving for a bit of my childhood really. My step mum Pauline grew up in a little village called Latchingdon, and until her Mum died in the early nineties I spent a lot of time there. Mary, her Mum, adored me as she had no grandchildren of her own, and I have really strong and fond memories of her smallholding. I think it shaped the way I am today more than they would have ever realised, almost everything I know about the countryside, and tending a garden, comes from my time spent there. They had an orchard, and vegetables, and beehives, and a maze of trimmed hedges with an old 1920's swimming pool hidden in the middle. It was like a secret garden, and so magical to me as a child. I've always been upset that my children couldn't have an experience of that wonderful place, as when Mary died her reclusive son stayed in the house and gave up tending the garden. Whenever I've asked if we could visit, Pauline has always told me that there is nothing left to see, it's so overgrown. Well, I had a look for it on Google maps yesterday and the house has been sold off and demolished as of last October, to be made into flats. I was gutted. :( I might get Pete to take me over there tomorrow to see what's left.