Westonbirt's dry valley meadows

I picked up Woodpeckers from her job after lunch today and we drove the ten miles south to Westonbirt Arboretum where we'd arranged to meet up with Lozarithm again. Helena hasn't been able to visit there as often as I have done this year, so wanted to make good use of our annual membership.

The sun started to shine as we set off from Stroud and by the time we arrived the air was warm and blue sky was evident between the scudding puffy clouds. Having met up with Lozarithm, we headed off towards the old part of the arboretum with 'no particular place to go', as Chuck Berry once said, although the others were interested to see the installation that had been commissioned to celebrate the 2000 year old lime tree's coppicing last autumn.

After two hours of wandering amongst the beautiful light illuminating all the new leaves, the buds and occasional flowers, we headed back towards the centre of the arboretum. As we exited from the old woodlands we entered the bottom of the dry valley where cows roam and graze. I liked the view towards the copper beeches on the far ridge which was our destination and spent a little time taking pictures whilst Helena and Lozarithm walked on ahead. You can see them climbing the slope towards the copper beech heading for the bird watching area, which proved to be rather disappointing as all the birds seemed to be elsewhere, although we had heard them as we walked through the woodlands. My pictures weren't as good as I had hoped and i realise that the bright conditions required rather more attention to get the best results. We'll have to come back which won't be a hardship. In fact I will enjoy spending more time just sitting in various glades being still in this wonderful setting.