A BEAUTIFUL MAY DAY - AND EVEN...

...a derelict tree!  After a good service at Church, we went out for our usual Sunday afternoon drive, taking the Liddington road out of Swindon.  As we drove along, Mr. HCB spotted this beautiful derelict tree and the best thing was that it had a field of oilseed rape just behind it.  Blip done!  

We could have turned round and come straight back home, but as it was such a beautiful day, we decided to keep going and further along the road, passed through the village of Aldbourne and took the next turning left to Eastridge, one of our favourite places - and I have done many Blips from this area.

We stopped and ate our sandwich and then parked the car and decided to walk through one of the fields, where there was a dedicated path.  Just a little further along was an entrance to a huge beech wood with a beautiful vista of bluebells - and these were definitely not Spanish ones!  The sight and perfume of the bluebells was amazing and we just walked and walked, enjoying one another’s company and listening to the bird song.  We had never been up here at this time of year so it was a real bonus to find these lovely little blue flowers - along with many other wild flowers too.  I had already decided I would use the derelict tree for my main Blip shot, but thought I would make a collage of the rest of our afternoon.  

It’s a shame we can’t upload videos to Blip, because I have a lovely one of Mr. HCB walking ahead of me through the woods and you can hear the crunch of footsteps on the fallen leaves as well as lots of birds singing.

We just kept saying to one another how beautiful it was and how peaceful and calm and every so often the perfume of the bluebells would waft over and it was a truly delightful afternoon.  But it was not over!

We came back through Baydon and always stop there at a particular spot, so when we got there, we saw another car parked - but thankfully it was “well parked” so we were able to slot in behind it.  I did say jokingly, as we pulled in, “There’s another car - how dare they” until Mr. HCB said that he wondered if it was some friends of ours, Frank and Rachel - and would you believe it, it was - so another serendipitous meeting!  Friends from our old church whom we haven’t seen for sometime, so of course, we called to them, walked over to where they were sitting and then sat and chatted for sometime.  It was lovely to catch up with them and we are so glad they parked in the lay-by!  Sadly, Rachel said they had finished the chocolate a few minutes before - not my day for chocolate today, obviously!

After a while, we decided we had better drive on home as I had a meal to cook, so we took our leave of them - but not before Frank had taken a selfie of the four of us and I sneakily took another shot of them sitting overlooking the Ridgeway with a glorious field of oilseed rape in front of them.  What a lovely day!

“Happiness is meeting old friends
     after a long time and feeling
          that nothing has changed.”
Chris Dar