Blue and silver

[shewhomust]

weegoddess commissioned us to go out into the Great High Woods (yes, that really is what it's called) and take pictures of bluebells. It must be the season, she said. And indeed it must, and what better excuse could there be to take the morning off and enjoy ourselves.

We parked at the Botanic Gardens, and called in to renew our season tickets and see what was going on in the gardens: maybe the Japanese cherry trees would still be in bloom? They weren't, in fact, we were much too late for that, as we found out eventually - but first we had a lengthy conversation with a silversmith in one of the greenhouses. About one day a month, Les and Vivienne Howe spend a day in the waterlily room, demonstrating their work, and this morning Vivienne was holding a workshop on making greetings cards, and it was quite early before the rush, and Les started to show us how he works silver, drawing on north eastern history, and one thing led to another, and he showed us his bow-drill (as illustrated in sixteenth century woodcuts and Egyptian tomb paintings) and how he had made a brooch for the Queen as a memento of her visit to Jarrow, and a pectoral cross for the new girl-choristers, and told us about his hallmark and it was all fascinating and before we knew it, it was midday.

A quick walk through the gardens: the cherry blossom was past, but there were still tulips in riotous colour, and primulas in the woodland garden (not to mention the bluebells). Then we turned right out of the gardens into the woods, and I photographed bluebells until my battery ran out: