The Great British Bluebell

I have a very long drive to work, which on the whole, is a pain in the ass.  Thirty-two miles morning and night on some of the most narrow, winding roads Kent and Sussex have to offer.  Barely a day goes by when somebody doesn’t threaten my life, be it a bad driver or a deer bouncing out of bush in front of me closely followed by all of his friends.  But there is an upside, the views of the countryside I get to see everyday.  I can’t say this means much when Im skidding round on ice or wheel deep in flood water but in the summer it has its’ moments. 

In the past I would spend the hour commute listening to the radio, contemplating my navel and generally being bored but since I started this blog I have been spending my time scanning the hedgerows for interesting things to possibly feature on here as much as I have been the road.  Maybe Im the bad driver actually!  This is how I arrived at thinking about bluebells.

Bluebells have always appeared to be intrinsically British, hell they are even protected by law.  No rooting around in woodlands collecting a few bulbs for a garden display allowed here.  I just presumed that they were a native flower that we were inexplicably rather fond of as a nation.  What I did not realise is that they only grow in Northern Europe and that we have over half the world’s population here in Britain.  I can believe this.  During my drive to work every day I must literally see millions.  Being British and a country dweller I of course take this completely for granted and on the whole ignore them.  I can imagine though that my readers from the US would find our Bluebell carpets really something.

I took these last week to illustrate.  I did not go for a walk to a particularly lovely spot in some woods to take them.  Instead I dumped my car in a muddy layby and between fighting with my headlight which chose this moment to get stuck on, took a few snaps.  I admit these woods are part of the Ashdown Forest, an ancient wood which is also the setting of Winnie the Pooh, but this is not a notable bit of it.  Right next to a busy road and with a bag of rubbish strewn just out of shot, but with a thickly carpeted by these little flowers anyway.  Obviously not a snobby flower, as long as it is damp and woody.  They really are sight don’t you think?  Whoever called them bluebells was obviously colour blind though as they are clearly purple. 

Bluebells as seen from a muddy lay-by on the A264 Sussex

Note the pheasant.  I would like to say his inclusion was planned but I only noticed him when I uploaded