Rural Ramblings

In between attending to various DIY projects this week, I've also managed to find time to get out and enjoy the relatively good weather.  Judging by the amount of bluebells in evidence, Spring has most definitely sprung. Anyway, as I really can't be arsed to write a proper post toady, I thought that I'd subject my faithful reader(s) to the equivalent of a slideshow of holiday pictures.  So, let's start with a look at some of those bluebells:

These were in a wooded coppice, or was it a spinney?  Does anyone know what the difference is?  Actually, it might have been a full fledged copse for all I know.  Then again, the trees covered quite a large area, so they might even count as a wood, but definitely not a forest.  Prominent in this wooded area (I think that's probably the safest term to use), is an area of water.  I hesitate to call it a pool or a pond, as it is really just a natural hollow which fills up with water in the rainy season.  It is often dry during the Summer.  But today, it wasn't:

There were a couple of new additions to the bank of the  'area of water'  - I say 'new', but they might have been there for years, I only noticed them today - in the form of two benches carved from large logs:

 

This one features a carved squirrel and, too small to see in the photo, a carved mouse on the other leaf seat.  The other bench features a duck, a frog and an owl:

Finally, leaving the woodland, I found myself facing the vista of a solar panel farm on the opposite slope, (the panels don't show up as well as I'd hoped on the photo, but trust me, the dark stuff on the far slope are solar panels).  These are becoming an increasingly common sight locally and are undoubtedly the face of the future.  They seem to attract less hostility than wind turbines, despite taking up more space.

Despite the sunshine and clear skies, the skeletal state of the trees gives away the fact that we're still only in Spring and that Summer is some way off yet.  There are more pictures, but I'm going to take pity on everyone and save them for another day.