I visited Houghall Woods to photograph the bluebells last week.  They weren’t quite at their peak – there were some good individual specimens but the “carpet” wasn’t at its height.  I’ll publish the pictures from this trip soon.

At the weekend I met up with some family members at Jervaulx Abbey in North Yorkshire.  This choice was mainly a convenient location to meet, but it turned out to be a lovely place with some potential for a photographic project or just a visit.  It wasn’t a suitable day to be taking photos for the blog or galleries but I’ll certainly be back.

I also visited Cragside on another family outing, mainly to see how well advanced the rhododendrons blooms are.  I was lulled into optimism by some neighbours plants which were well in flower, but they must be early flowering varieties – some of the shrubs on the estate were in flower (some even past their best), but the main spectacle hadn’t arrived yet.  In the meantime, here is an example from our garden last year – click through to the gallery for more pictures:

Rhododendron Blooms