y'all, we just managed to catch the tail end of this years hyacinth festival and it was so pretty! i never imagined... a whole forest, hills and knolls and little valleys all covered in bluebells. the dappled light coming through the beech spires and everywhere bluebells, bluebells, bluebells, carpets and carpets of them, as far as the eye can see. like some magical fairy tale forest. and little beetles. and also fields of wild garlic. the olfactory effect was a bit subpar but visually just as stunning as the bluebells. how many times can i say bluebells? it just needed some twinkling sparkles to look like a 90s internet graphic (throwback to my previous post about witchy websites).
there were quite a lot of people, even in the middle of the week, but it's prime blooming time, so no wonder! it was definitely more of a hike than i expected but i think they even had a special accessible route for wheelchairs and prams. plenty of parking space, toilets both outside and deeper in the park, plenty of seating, no notes! i only wish we'd prepared better and packed more food, then we'd have been able to do a longer trek. even so, it's a decent wood even outside of bluebell season, so we might yet walk a full trail.
