Sunday 20 April - One of the main reasons for renting a car over the weekend was to find a forest full of blue bells. I have seen a number of postcards and photos of forests awash in a sea of blue flowers and I was determined to see it for myself first hand. We decided to go to Westonbirt arboretum in search of the blue bells and also to visit the arboretum itself. We had a rough start to the day, but when we eventually got to Westonbirt (shortly before 12) we were rewarded with an excellent outing. We spent the first few hours exploring the Silk wood, 400 acres of a medieval forest that has recently got more attention from the forestry commission and had a number of recent planting. It was here, among the trees that we found the sought after blue bells and it was an enchanting experience. From the fields one could see the trees and at the grass line a haze of purply-blue. When we got closer we could see thousands of blue bells covering huge spaces of woodland stretching nearly as far as the eye could see. We also went to the cherry collection and saw a number of fluffy pink and white flowering trees before heading back to the visitor center area for a wonderful picnic. We got very lucky with the weather and it was a beautiful day, sunny and warm. After lunch we followed a guided tour through the old arboretum, originally created and planted by the Holford family around 1829. Father and son invested a lot of time and money to bring in "exotic" trees (many from the USA) and to plant, maintain a breed the trees. We saw a number of rhododendrons, magnolias and camillas in bloom as well as a wide variety of beautiful pines and hardwoods including some giant redwoods. It was a amazing place to visit and we only saw a small part of the 600 acres, definitely worth a second trip.
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