Last week I wrote a post about my aim to do more walking – not just to the shops or on the nursery run, but further afield. I said that I wanted to explore parts of the local area that I haven’t yet visited.

Well, yesterday was a beautiful sunny day, so that’s exactly what I did. After dropping DorkySon at nursery, I came home and stuck an apple and my camera in my shoulder bag – completely ignoring the sideboard full of dishes and the basket full of laundry – before heading straight back out the door again.

Goodness, I’m glad I did.

I went in the opposite direction to usual, along streets that I haven’t walked more than once or twice before, and there were beautiful blossoming trees all along the way.

I’d seen a local mum mention online over the weekend that there were bluebells out in a patch of local woodland (which I’d also never visited before) so I headed in that direction.

I was expecting a few trees, with maybe a couple of patches of the lovely blue flowers… but oh my. For nearly two hours I was able to walk slowly along paths with carpets of bluebells on either side, breathing in their sweet scent and listening to songbirds. It was absolutely enchanting.

Sadly, my photos really don’t do them justice, don’t even come close to capturing the scale or prettiness of the little forest.

I really didn’t want to leave. It was the most calming experience I’ve had in a long time, and I could have walked around there all day, but eventually I found myself on a path leading back out into a field, and then onto the road.

At that point I really should have gone home, but I’d obviously been taken over by some kind of spring sunshine induced madness, so I pushed the household chores to the back of my mind again, and instead decided to explore a short section of The Nickey Line; a footpath that runs along the old route of the Harpenden to Hemel Hempstead railway.

Again, I’m glad I did, because it was lovely to walk under the arches of some of the old bridges…

To see the piles of logs that are keeping local stoves burning…

And finally, just before I headed for home, to make a new friend!

I hope that yesterday marked the start of something new and fun. I can’t wait for the next sunny day that falls over a weekend so that I can go exploring again, but this time taking DorkyDad and DorkySon with me.

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