BLUEBELLS. If there’s one word which conjures up the Chilterns landscape in spring, it’s the flowers that have become such an intrinsic part of our woodland heritage.
And if there’s one abiding positive image which emerged during that horrendous lockdown month of April 2020, it will be those vistas of bluebells dancing in the local woods.
We were lucky, of course. Living on the edge of open country, it was easy to disappear into the woods for our vital daily permitted escape from the house.
And what a great healer nature was during those difficult months. From the deluge of Twitter and Instagram pictures being shared from woodlands across the Chilterns, it seems we were not alone in finding this a welcome respite from the grim tally of deaths and infections on the news feeds.
It’s not a luxury we took for granted either – friends in Italy, Spain, China and Argentina were under virtual house arrest, unable to get out for anything more than a tightly controlled shopping trip.
Not to mention those trapped on cruise ships or stranded in a drab hotel in a foreign country stressing about how to get home.
But those walks offered so much more than just a welcome escape from the house, a breath of fresh air and all-important exercise.
From the moment that the prime minister addressed the nation on March 23 about government plans to take unprecedented steps to limit the spread of coronavirus, it was clear we were in uncharted and scary territory – not just in the UK, but all over the world.
Doubtless many volumes will be written about the awful spring of 2020, and it’s hard to write anything positive about that time without being conscious of the terrible human toll – some 27,500 deaths in the UK by the end of April, with all the associated individual family tragedies those figures reflect.
For a while, it felt as if we might be joining the statistics. A long feverish weekend paved the way to a fortnight of slow recovery. But lying in the night coughing and sweating, listening to relentless government press conferences and stories of doom from around the world, it was all too easy to succumb to the paranoia.
Every cough and tickle took on a new significance. What if there was a problem breathing? Would this mean dying on a ventilator in a hospital unable to say anything to your nearest and dearest? And the social media feeds didn’t help – this was real, and friends around the world were already having to cope with the loss of loved ones.
Thankfully, the symptoms subsided and strength returned. And nothing felt quite so exhilarating as the fresh air of that first tentative walk, even if we couldn’t smell the flowers.
It made those bluebell paths all the more enchanting, of course, a month-long carpet of colour on so many of our local paths…English bluebells, naturally, so long associated with the ancient woodlands of the Chilterns and a constant source of inspiration for local artists like Jo Lillywhite (below), whose paintings reflect the landscapes near her home in South Oxfordshire.
As our first steps outdoors became a little more confident and we managed to stray further from home, there were new copses and paths to discover.
Enchanting and iconic, bluebells are said to be a favourite with the fairies – and the violet glow of these bluebell woods is an incredible wildflower spectacle that really does lift the spirits and warm the heart.
“There is a silent eloquence/In every wild bluebell” wrote a 20-year-old Anne Bronte in 1840.
The vivid hues may have begun to fade by the end of April, but the secret beauty of our ancient local woods helped to set us firmly on the road to recovery back in 2020 and provided a welcome gentler vision of a terrible month which will haunt so many for years to come.
Five years on, and paths across the Chilterns are set to spring into colour when April arrives.
From Henley to Cliveden, from the Ashridge Estate to Wendover, private gardens, huge estates and public nature reserves start to put on stunning displays, many of which will last well into May.
Poets have written of blue bonnets, silken bells and dancing sapphires, waves of mystical blue and the fragrance of a thousand nodding heads.
It’s not hard to see why these modest blue flowers have won such a precious place in our hearts. As Anne Bronte realised, their “silent eloquence” still speaks volumes about the wonders of the natural world and the beauty of the ancient woodlands we are so blessed to know and love.
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