It's so disappointing to arrive at a beautiful bluebell woodland to find all the best bluebells have been badly trampled by previous visitors. I'd arrived at the bluebell wood on the hill overlooking my village to catch the early light on Tuesday but failed to find anything useable. Why can't people show more respect for our countryside and wildlife?
Fortunately it was a very different scene that greeted me later that day in Barton Wood in the East Lyn valley upstream from Watersmeet in Exmoor National Park. I'd scouted the area the previous week and decided it needed a few more days for the bluebells to peak and for a little more beech foliage to emerge. I was concerned that the bluebells might have suffered a similar fate to my local woodland from visitors over the weekend but the people of Exmoor know how to treat their woodlands. Not a crushed flower in sight!
I already had compositions in mind but still managed to loose myself for the best part of an hour and a half before the sunlight was blocked by the hills.
