Bluebells and a Robin

One of my camera club friends had recommended a trip to Morpeth to see a beautiful bluebell display in the aptly named "Bluebell Wood" on the edge of the town, so my Editor and I went there this morning: we weren't disappointed, it was really beautiful AND the weather was gorgeous too. Of course I took lots of photos of the "carpets" of flowers, but my favourite shot is actually this close-up with the bokeh in the background.

We'd taken a picnic and had in mind to proceed further into Northumberland for a walk - but discovered that there's a lovely walk from Bluebell Wood along by the River Wansbeck to the picturesque village of Bothal where we had a good look round the old churchyard. We passed lots more bluebells on the walk: the only downside was that a vast amount of garlic was also in flower - it also looked very pretty but completely overpowered the scent of the bluebells!

On our way back we came across a friendly robin who posed so nicely in the sunshine that I had to take its portrait in the extra. (Techy info: the dynamic range of the light on the robin was tricky, but he was such a good poser he kept still enough for me to shoot 3 exposure-bracketed shots, subsequently processed with the HDR merge function in Lightroom.)

Altogether a lovely day and a newly discovered walk to do again sometime.