Return for spring

I have finally made it back to Bel's Wood. My last visit ended with Kendal Mountain Rescue recovering me from a gorse bush up on the hill. I am now mobile with crutches and wanted to see the changes from 7 weeks ago.

The wood sorrel is flowering and there were good clumps of violets growing from patches of dead bracken so hopefully the butterflies will be emerging. Pearl-bordered and High Brow Fritillary butterflies enjoy these conditions. 

Bluebells were just pushing up their closed buds and a week later are flourishing

With stitchwort in numbers greater than last year.

I saw a male and a female orange tip butterflies both of which seemed to be new with very vibrant colours both moving too fast to photograph. Friends heard a cuckoo further up the plot.

Being confined to one area I sat in the sun to appreciate what I could see.

This silver birch swaying in the breeze was a good place to start

Looking north, the blackthorn is coming into bloom

                                            I always enjoy blackthorn next to the flowering gorse

The beck has water although the land is drying out rapidly with little rain recently.

With the leaves still emerging the sun can still reach the floor under the trees, I lay down on the dry ground and listened to the sound of the water tumbling down the beck and the stones chinking as they were moved by the water flowing over them.

And felt restored

Thanks to my lovely friends Gillian and Colin who took me there and treated me to a picnic.