Bluebell Walk

Today we did the annual Bluebell Walk from Suffolk Food Hall. We had seen such great bluebells last week on our Three Dragons Walk that our expectations were quite high, but we weren't disappointed.

This was the invite from Joyce.

"BH Monday May 2nd. We are meeting/parking at The Suffolk Food Hall  for a 9.45am start. The deli and café are open, so buy a coffee or a treat if you feel so inclined. They are open at 9am and they will let you use the toilets. We will be stopping at the Alton Water Café for a pit stop but bring lunch if you wish. The walk is just under 12 miles, so I expect we will finish around 3pm. Please make sure that you can complete the walk within the time frame. I am expecting 15+ people so it should be a grand walk." 

In fact there were 19 of us! This was our route, which was the same as usual...

Here are a few of my photos.

Here we are at the start.

When we got to Cutter's Wood the bluebells were a bit sparse to start with...

...but we got a great show in Great Birch Wood.

We had our drinks stop by Alton Water, with a view of Tattingstone Place across he other side,

Here we heard a little bird singing its heart out. I suggested it might be a blackcap, but then we spotted it... No it wasn't.

But then I remembered from my Lackford Lakes Dawn Chorus walk in 2018 that the songs of a blackcap and a garden warbler could easily be confused. I suggested that might be. After looking at this,  I think was right. What do you think?

We lunched by the Alton Water visitor centre.

As we returned we spotted these two deer in the distance.

and passed Great Birch Wood again...

...before dodging the irrigation jet to get to the splendid Grade II listed Bond Hall.

At Freston Lodge Farm, the rhododendrons weren't quite out yet, but...

...in Freston Woods we saw plenty more bluebells...

...and a fantastic swathe of wild garlic, aka Ramsons.

I'd forgotten to bring a bag, but Kim kindly donated her sandwich bag so I could collect some so that I could... well see the forthcoming post!

I needn't have worried about denuding the woods with my modest harvest. Look at this!

Soon after we were back with the impressive sight of the Orwell bridge as we returned to our starting point.

Always a good walk, but I think the bluebells (and ramsons) are as good as I've ever seen. Let's hope they last until Joyce leads the same walk in the Suffolk Walking Festival. Thank-you Joyce for leading us round and to the others too for the company.

You can see more details of our walk here on MapMyWalk and more of my photos here on Flickr.