During their very short blooming season, I like to take every opportunity I can to walk where there are bluebells. I can’t get enough of them, and a swathe of that glorious bluey/violet makes me quite giddy with happiness.

This year, my son and daughter in law took me on a trip to Hole Park Gardens, near Rolvenden in the Weald of Kent. They are so famed for their bluebells that they actually have a bluebell barometer on their website so that you can monitor when they reach their peak – and believe me, I was on that website every day in the run up to this trip, having missed the perfect moment last year!

The journey to get there was a treat in its own right, as we drove past so many bluebell woods – it’s clearly all going down in the Weald – and I was at maximum excitement before we had even arrived. Obviously, as soon as we got there we headed straight for the woodland walk and I had to keep stopping to take photos, even though I have finally come to accept that however hard you try, unless you have an all singing, all dancing camera, you don’t stand a chance of capturing their magic – although here goes anyway!

They were absolutely glorious and I was quite beside myself!

Map in hand, we explored every inch of the gardens, and although they were lovely (with some very fine displays of tulips), the bluebells were the star of the show at this time of the year, and I wouldn’t have had it any other way.

My offspring had brought along a delicious picnic, although sadly picnicking is not allowed in the grounds and is confined to the car park. I get it – it’s a family home and garden, but as a responsible picnic eater and an abhorrer of littering, it was a bit disappointing that we couldn’t stop at a picturesque bench. (Though at least heading back out to the car park mid way broke up the multiple turns that I insisted we made through the bluebell woodland walk!)

Before we leave Hole Park, here’s a rather lovely carving of three bears climbing up the tree stump to reach a bee hive at the top. It even had some little bees attached to complete the scene.

Closer to home, Bigbury Wood near Canterbury, has a reasonable display of bluebells. We’ve created our own circular walk from a variety of footpaths that we do often, especially at bluebell time, but as the North Downs Way runs through said wood, one of our favourite, though less frequent walks, is to follow the path from Canterbury through to Chilham. Depending on train times back, we can often be found having a quick drink at the Badgers Hill Farm cafe before returning home.

Just for a change however, we thought we would shake things up by catching the train to Chilham and walking back to Canterbury, and as the weather was nice, we decided to treat ourselves to breakfast first. The vegetarian selection wasn’t great – just toast or scrambled eggs on toast. I’d normally put up with it because I don’t like making a fuss, but quite out of character, I asked if they could leave off the ham and reduce the price of their eggs benedict, which they were quite happy to do. Maybe I need to speak up a bit more often! It was delicious and it was the first al fresco breakfast of the year – yay – and sitting outside in the early morning sunshine was a real joy.

You need to like chickens though, as at Badgers Hill they wander freely around the outside area and love to come and peck under the tables!

We soon decided that we had surely never done the whole walk in its entirety at this time of year as we walked past an area of woodland towards the Chilham end where we were certain we had never seen such a carpet of bluebells before,

although it is a walk we do every spring because it passes through so many apple orchards, and the sight of the blossom makes me almost as happy as seeing the bluebells.

Here’s a little bee house in the hedgerow in one of the orchards, presumably to encourage pollinators.

On through Bigbury

and into No Man’s Orchard: a community orchard that was absolutely covered in cuckoo flowers, so named because their appearance in April coincides with the arrival of the cuckoo.

I was still in need of one final bluebell fix before the season ended though so, as a last hurrah, I persuaded my daughter in law to accompany me on a second bluebell related outing, and we headed to Perry Wood near Faversham, in the hope that there would still be some to find. I hadn’t been there in bluebell season before but google suggested that there would be some!

Although they were definitely on the turn, there were certainly enough to keep me satisfied as we headed along the main path towards The Pulpit. This is a wooden viewing platform that is just behind the tree, but as there was a small patch of bluebells right there, I’m afraid I was compelled to take a photo of those instead!

Climb up the steps and you can enjoy the panoramic view across the beautiful Kent countryside – before sitting at the handy picnic bench for a drink stop.

The circular walk we followed took us out through apple orchards with some stunning pink blossom

and through the village of Shottenden, where their sign is one of the many village signs that epitomises why Kent is the Garden of England, with its apples, pears, hops, oast houses and a farmer ploughing the field.

Heading back towards the woods, we crossed a field that was full of very strange flies with long dangly legs. So strange that we had to look them up afterwards to find out what they were. They turned out to be St Mark’s flies (or hawthorn flies), so called because they usually take to the skies on 25th April which is St Mark’s Day. And it actually was 25th April, so they were bang on time! I was very pleased that we were in the right place at the right time to have seen them, even if they were slightly unnerving.

Back in Perry Wood, we found some fairy doors,

before coming across the very best bluebells of the day, which truly made my heart soar.

And just look at this gorgeous thatched cottage that we came across as we left one part of the woods and headed towards the next.

It really was a lovely walk that kept on giving, and it now has a post it note attached, to remind me that it needs to be included in our best bluebell walks to do next year.