It’s now, in the cusp between April and May, that the Bluebells are at their finest.  We have some stragglers in our messy garden (see my my blog, an (Un)English garden), but the place to see them, in West London at least, is the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew. There is a lovely area to the west of the gardens which is called “Bluebell Dell” and it’s just very blue!  Kew do a nice May Day celebration, with Morris dancers – a fine English tradition – and lots of stalls selling natural wares. And just down from them is the Dell. Always worth a stroll. It is such a beautiful demonstration of the seasons. Serene, calming.  You can lose yourself in the simple beauty.

But this year it has been raining and raining and raining.  The great irony is that most of England is officially in DROUGHT at the moment, according to the water companies. There are big adverts everywhere – as the rain buckets down. OK, two weeks of deluge doesn’t change things completely, but it’s fair to say that it has raised the scepticism levels. Britain, small island on the east side of the Atlantic, buffeted by the South West trade winds from the sea, habitually carrying a lot of rain. DROUGHT.

Oh well, it means I’m going to cheat here and show you a few photos from May 2011, when the weather was beautiful. And the Bluebells blazed their blue-violet hue. Just wonderful. No close ups as my camera refused to focus on the small things.  But I hope these shots give you the sense of simple beauty.

Note

My blog, “An (Un)English Garden” can be found in the right hand toolbar under London and Photos.