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You are here: Home / Local Exploring / Bluebells & Boars in The Forest of Dean

May 5, 2018 · 15 Comments

Bluebells & Boars in The Forest of Dean

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Today we headed to the Forest of Dean with the intention of riding our bikes, we loaded up the car and picked up a picnic on the way, on the outskirts of Whitecroft just outside Lydney, heading towards The Forest of Dean on the road from Tescos to Clearwell we were greeted by carpets of blue blazing out from the trees, the bluebells were highly evident from the road, we stopped in a layby and entered the woods, it was beautiful… As we walked through a family of wild boar (7babies) ambled past us, it was a fantastic and unexpected treat….

I don’t think the photos need words, the beauty explains itself…
I probably took way too many photos…

Here’s how our walk in the woods looked….

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And then they left….

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It was a magical treat…

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Filed Under: Local Exploring Tagged With: bluebells, Forest of Dean, magical, Wild Boar, woods

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Comments

  1. Alice Chain says

    May 6, 2014 at 8:20 pm

    Beautiful! 🙂

    Reply
    • familydaystriedandtested says

      May 6, 2014 at 8:21 pm

      It was indeed 🙂

      Reply
  2. Cath Oliver says

    May 6, 2014 at 9:54 pm

    How lovely! We are heading to Lydney at the end of the month for a few days- lovely place!

    Reply
  3. Kelly says

    May 6, 2014 at 11:11 pm

    Wonderful photos

    Reply
    • familydaystriedandtested says

      May 6, 2014 at 11:18 pm

      Thanks Kelly 🙂

      Reply
  4. Lara says

    May 6, 2014 at 11:16 pm

    Gorgeous photos…this is my neck of the woods, so to speak and I have yet to encounter a wild boar!

    Reply
    • familydaystriedandtested says

      May 6, 2014 at 11:20 pm

      We’ve been very lucky and this is our 3rd encounter 🙂

      Reply
    • Karen Smith says

      May 14, 2014 at 10:45 pm

      beautiful pics, we do live in such a lovely place, but be couscous of the boar as they can be temperamental (after all they are wild animals) x karen

      Reply
      • familydaystriedandtested says

        May 16, 2014 at 4:31 pm

        Absolutely Karen! We’ve come across them a few times before, we never approach them but stop and let them amble by, should they start to come in out direction we retreat smoothly and quietly.

        Reply
  5. Jean sterry says

    May 14, 2014 at 8:39 pm

    what a day out you must have had if the photo’s are anything to go by.

    Reply
    • familydaystriedandtested says

      May 14, 2014 at 8:41 pm

      Thankyou, it was a fantastic and very unexpected day, we were very lucky.

      Reply
  6. visitsouthwest says

    March 4, 2015 at 8:46 am

    Reblogged this on visitsouthwest.

    Reply
  7. andy says

    April 24, 2016 at 8:46 pm

    hi
    I’d really like to visit-is there any chance you could mark on a screenshot of google maps where you parked? it would make it a lot easier to find for me!
    cheers
    andy

    Reply
    • Laura Porter says

      April 25, 2016 at 1:58 pm

      Now added to the post. 🙂

      Reply

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🐍 So pleased to see the churchyard slow worms c 🐍 So pleased to see the churchyard slow worms coming out of hibernation over the past week. 
I found a few whilst re starting the mammoth task of working the churchyard over the summer months this week - the two large ones in the photos, we picked them up and moved them along whilst caring for the grass around the bottom of gravestones - it’s their favourite spots to hang out. 

You may also remember back in October when I stumbled over a mound which I was clearing of broken glass jars, slates etc - kind of a dump area which I initially assumed was a plot under the undergrowth. It turned out to be a rich home for slow worms and I found at least five baby slow worms cwtched up in the buried jars and under the slates (around two inches long), once I’d established it was such a rich habitat I stopped my clearance efforts, added some additional slates and left the area (apart from clearing the broken glass)..I’m sure it was a hibernation hive. 

Today I returned to that spot and lifted one of the five additional slates I’d placed and found around 10/15 slow worms snuggled up together, at least three big ones (7/8inches) and lots of smaller (3/4inches), it was a lovely suprise, I only lifted one slate as if there was anymore under the other slates I didn’t want to disturb them. 

I’d mowed around the area in the week as a fist cut of the churchyard, you can see in the photo how long the grass has become. 
I called the children over to take a look at the nest and we covered it back up before circling the site with rocks to prevent others from disturbing them, I’ve made a simple sign out of a wood slice (which was supposed to be for my pots and pans in the kitchen to stand on😂) and hopefully they’ll continue to thrive.

Slow worms are native to the U.K. and can live for around 20 - 30 years. (They’ve been known to live for 54 years in captivity!) They are often mistaken for snakes but are actually legless lizards. 🐍
The are a ‘priority’ and ‘protected’ species in the U.K. 

It fills us with joy that they continue to be so apparent and comfy in the churchyard. #slowworm #churchyard #protectedspecies
☀️ The glow of the morning rising sun looking ☀️ The glow of the morning rising sun looking gorgeous behind the altar window today.
🦋💐🧺🚗 Yesterday I got a reduced butterf 🦋💐🧺🚗
Yesterday I got a reduced butterfly birthday cake at the supermarket so I took it as an opportunity to have a car boot picnic with Boo.
It wasn’t anyone’s birthday and there is never an excuse needed to eat cake. 
We put the back seats down in the back of the car  and transformed it into a garden with fake flowers, a green sheet and butterflies we’d painted. I made a butterfly to decorate a bottle of squash and drew butterflies on some paper cups. 
We then drove to the ocean and spent an hour together eating cakes, drawing in the sand and jumping in the breaking waves on the shore. 
Simple fun that started with a reduced cake👌 and a lovely time had by the both of us 🥰 ...time and £1:80 well spent.
Friday night chilling on the sofa 🥰 It’s bee Friday night chilling on the sofa 🥰

It’s been a really fab week away from the church but it’s wonderful to be back. I think we needed the past week to regroup and prepare for whats coming.

Commence the pod...
💪 we’ve got this...

& if we haven’t then the beach is down the road.
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