The Delights of Spring

When my friend took up Geocaching as a pastime I was convinced of one thing. It doesn't half take you to places that you wouldn't normally go. Today, three of us and an equal number of dogs, took off to do a circular walk. The four miles we covered took us through areas that I know but hadn't visited for quite a while. On the bed of the Weald, the terrain was fairly easy going but the soil underfoot consists mostly of a heavy clay. The woodlands were full of Anemones and Primroses but not a Bluebell yet in sight. Great excitement for me when I found the first Snakes Head Fritillaries that I've ever seen in the wild and unexpectedly finding banks full of wild strawberries in flower. We walked about four miles when time ran out and we had to cut a few corners to get back here. The dogs arrived home a rather horrible grey colour, definitely in need of a bath!

Whilst my friends did the most of the finding of caches, I enjoyed photographing the evidence of the change of season. All of a sudden the winter garb has disappeared from wadrobes and children were running around in shorts and T shirts. What a difference a couple of days make!

This was the last image I took arriving back to the car. Not SOC... I've tried to bring out a little depth to the scene. It's not strictly HD, of which I'm not often a great fan, but this was the result after a little playing around. I wanted to highlight the primroses on the banks of the meandering brook a bit more than they were in the original image.

I'm not a good judge of my own editing so will leave you to decide. :)