Spring in Hardwick Wood Cambridgeshire

The spring flowers are pretty much on schedule in our local wood - the bluebells are a bit later than last year as they need another week or so to be a full carpet. The Oxlips are at their best and are extra large and full of flowers - probably the result of the very wet winter being a specialist of boulder clay soils.  The wood is still very muddy underfoot. The cowslips just outside the wood are also very abundant this year. The birds are busy displaying and setting up nests etc - a very obliging wren and distant views of woodpecker, blackcap and nuthatch.

Dry Drayton Church

 St. Peter and St Paul in Dry Drayton is my favourite so far of the churches we have visited because of its simplicity and light feeling inside. The building is substantial and consists of a chancel, an aisled and clerestoried nave with north porch, and a three-storey west tower. The tower is the oldest part of the present building and dates from the 13th century, as does the majority of the chancel and nave, with 14th century additions. The plain octagonal font dates from the 13th century. The main restoration was mostly carried out on the middle of the 19th century by William Smith at his own expense. Between 1851 and 1853 he reconstructed the chancel, approximately to its ancient length, providing new glass as a family memorial. Between 1859 and 1862 he restored the nave, clearing away the old pews and a gallery. He attempted to straighten the North aisle but it still leans at a worrying angle. A. W. Hamilton-Gell gave an organ in 1881.

Fox Among the Bees

I was busy photographing bees on a patch of heather in the Botanic Gardens for a project I am doing,  when I became aware I was being watched. It isn't often you end up photographing a fox with a macro lens. He did a few large yawns and then moved to a more 'secret' place deeper in the bushes. 

(Bees for records Ashy-mining Bee, Common Carder bee, Honeybee, Red-tailed bumble Bee, Mourning Bee, plus two to be ID'ed)

Hardwick Church

Hardwick is our nearest village and has a 14th century church build from local stone. The unusual queen-post roofs are fifteenth century (queen-posts are vertical wooden posts on either side of the centre). During this period, the chancel arch was rebuilt to make it larger, and a stone stairway was constructed in the north east corner of the nave. There are still remnants of the original wall paintings, painted between 1460 and 1480.

Birds in the Blossom

The Long-tailed Tits were bathing in the pond and then doing the fluffing the feathers and drying off in the plum blossom and dogwood above. They were joined by Redpolls, Chaffinch and Starling. Taken through a double glazed window which is ok for the central subject but does give a double image to the sides. 

Barton Church, Cambridgeshire

St Peters was looking very attractive with all the Easter flowers when we visited on Wednesday, The present church dates from the 14th century though earlier records exist back to Domesday. The carved screen with its fine detail is thought to date from about 1370, and was obviously brightly coloured. The pulpit is hexagonal and was once part of a three decker pulpit. It bears the date 1635. The font consists of a fourteenth century stem of clunch, topped by a limestone bowl. The wall paintings date from the 14th century. They depict various saints and stories from the Bible.