In an old wood above Dursley

I noticed this bluebell carpet under the canopy of an elderly woodland as I drove up onto the Cotswold scarp above Dursley, on a road called Whiteway. From the road as I drove past I could see the shimmering rich colour of flowering bluebells, which would probably end soon, so I turned the car around and looked for a space at the side of the woodland to park.

The earlier low mists had disappeared by the time I reached there in the late morning, so I parked and ventured into the woodland. It is one of those woodlands, which appears untended now but which once was a working wood. There seem to be too many such places where woods are left to fend for themselves.

The carpet of bluebells spreads out under fallen branches in what was once a working wood which now seems untended and left to fend for itself. The bluebells were pretty, but seemed to have nearly finished their flowering and had lost their vividness. But it was good to be there watching the light wind play with the beech and hazel leaves.