Bluebells on Holwell Lawn

We had heard that there was always a lovely display of bluebells at Holwell Lawn at the foot of Haytor so decided to go to see for ourselves.

The forecast was for showers in the morning clearing to a sunny afternoon, but it was still raining when we got to Haytor.  We drove on to Hound Tor and stopped for lunch then as the rain stopped drove back and parked in a lay-by at the edge of Holwell Lawn.  The bluebells were not as bright blue as we had hoped but still looked good.

After returning to our car we drove on to Emsworth Nature Reserve.  I had read that there were bluebells there, but although we walked some way into the reserve we could not see any signs of them and as it started to rain again we returned to the car.

Bluebells in Burrator Woods

We had just an afternoon to get out into the countryside, so we chose to go to Meavy to see what the bluebells were like in Burrator Woods.

We parked by the River Meavy and walked up the road to Merchant Cross and then down the road to Yeo Farm.  When we got to the farm we went through a series of stiles and continued to climb towards Sheepstor. After we had been walking about 20 minutes we came to the entrance to Burrator Woods which was a matter of climbing a 3 rung ladder to get over a wall.  As we got into the woods we immediately saw all the bluebells.  The path wound through them and we continued walking until we came to the exit to the wood.  At this point we turned around and made our way back to the car.

We then drove to Burrator Reservoir to see how full it was after all the rain we have had recently.  There was only a trickle coming over the dam, although the reservoir was very full.  The yellow rhododendrens were out but the other colours were still in bud.

Mothecombe to Keaton Cove

Last year we walked the South West Coast Path, in stages, from Plymouth to Stoke Beach and from Wonwell to Bolberry Down.  We therefore wanted to walk the section from Stoke Beach to the River Erme.  This is 4.3 miles and as there are a lot of ups and downs we thought it would be too strenuous to walk there and back in one go.  As it was a beautiful sunny day we decided to walk about half of it and leave the other half to do another day.

We drove to Mothecombe and left the car in the car park there - for a £4 fee!  When we visited Mothecombe last time we walked down to the River Erme and along the coastal path from there towards Mothecombe beach.  This time we walked directly down to Mothecombe Beach, crossed it and walked up some steps to the path along the cliffs.

Mothecombe Beach, with Wonwell beach on the other side of the River Erme

The sea looked a beautiful azure colour and there was wonderful views in both directions.  There were lots of flowers along the path, gorse, bluebells, sea thrift.

The path gradually climbed uphill and there was one steep hill down that went into steps before winding upwards again.

After 50 minutes we decided we had walked far enough so we stopped at the still at Keaton Cove.  The view from here was wonderful and we could see the caravan site at Stoke Beach in the distance.

Ince Castle

We haven't been able to get out and about lately as the weather has been so wet and we have had our hands full looking after Oscar and Dixon.  But today the sun was shining and Ince Castle Gardens was open for charity.  We had visited these gardens last year and were very impressed with them so I was keen to take my Mum to see them

When we visited last time there were lots of early spring flowers like daffodils and snowdrops.  To maintain this display they had not cut the grass so there were lots of wild areas, with cow parsley, wild garlic interspersed with bluebells.  Occasionally there were some wild orchids.





The rhododendrens were a little disappointing.  Some of the plants did not look very healthy, but one or two of them gave bright splashes of colour.

A lot of summer plants were out, but there were still lots of young plants in the greenhouse and had not been planted out yet.  The formal beds will certainly be a lot more colourful when they are.  There was wisteria growing up the back of the house and one wisteria was a feature plant in the lawn at the side of the Castle.

All around the gardens there were beautiful views of the River Lyhner, but the peace of the garden was rather spoilt by lots of noisy children running around and the charity the garden was open for was a local school.