Norfolk bluebells

The first long day of fieldwork: four hours driving to and from Norwich and seven hours tramping round a farm, checking previous survey data and making a photographic catalogue (91 photos taken, all prcessed by the time I'd gone to bed!). The first major fieldwork is always a bit of a shock to the system after a winter of relative inactivity - I'm sure the farm gates are getting higher every year!

For this spring, I was quite lucky with the weather. After a grey start the sun gradually broke through, though a fresh north-easterly breeze stopped it getting too hot! I decided against wearing wellies, as I don't find them very comfortable to walk in, but the damp crops soon soaked my boots, so I once again had wet feet all day - unpleasant at first, but I soon don't notice it.

I stopped to have my lunch on a tree stump at the edge of a wood, and soaked up the glorious sight and scent associated with a classic English bluebell wood. Over most of eastern England bluebells are very strongly associated with ancient woodland, but in Norfolk that seem to grow quite well in older plantations, often being the dominant ground flora species. In the west of the country they are much less fussy about habitat, often growing out in the open.

I arrived home just in time to pick Alex up from the station, only to find it in chaos, as the access road had been closed as part of renovations, forcing everyone to park some way from the station entrance. I eventually found Alex, but by the time we reached home a serious headache had set in, so I was very glad that Pete had cooked dinner, a delicious Carribbean meal with an unusual sweet potato pudding for desert - yummy!