Green Winged Orchids

 A small selection of Green Winged Orchid shots from Upwood Meadows.

Bluebells at Gamsey Wood

The bluebells have been at their best, several weeks earlier than typical.  This has followed a very wet winter (and not much drier early spring), that caused widespread flooding.  Many local woods are still waterlogged.  Beds, Cambs and Northants Wildlife Trust, which controls most of these woods, has closed them to visitors to prevent damage.  Gamlingay, Hardwick, Hayley, Waresley, Wistow and Lady's Woods are all closed.  Brampton wood is technically open, but the advice is not to visit.  Luckily, the little known and little visited Gamsey wood is dry, open and, when I visited last weekend, the bluebells were at their best.  

Gamsey is a small wood and has a fair amount of undergrowth.  When I went last year, cleavers and nettles were drowning the bluebells.  This year, the bluebells had a head start on the greenery and were giving a much stronger showing.  

Seascale

A few weeks ago, I had a week's break in the Lake District.  It was mainly a hillwalking holiday, and the hill days were fairly foggy.  So no interesting photos there.  But on our rest days we did spend a couple of high tides at Seascale.  The beach had a small jetty and enough rocks to keep us interested.  The second tide was higher than the first.  Both times the sky was pretty grey, and all interest was in tide, which was fast and choppy.  I played around with exposure duration, but found that 1 or 2 seconds gave the most pleasing result.