I’ve mentioned before that May is my favourite month; there are a few reasons for this including the fact that here in the UK we have two long weekends, it’s my birthday month, the days are longer, the weather is generally pretty good and nature is full of colour. I’m not sure who has the task of assigning all of these random national days, weeks or months but if someone had asked me to pick a month to be named as National Walking Month I’d have opted for May and even though I wasn’t the one given this assignment thankfully whoever was asked about it also picked May – hooray!

While April disappeared without a post, I was still strolling, however it was mainly shorter walks or my commute so I was keen to fit in a longer walk as soon as I could. Therefore when the time came to decide what to do over the first May bank holiday weekend I was of course keen to go for a walk. A few ideas were mooted but I was conscious of the fact that we are approaching the end of bluebell season and so this was the deciding factor, we needed to head out to a woodland to try and catch a purple carpet before it was too late.

While my lovely, little local park does have a few bluebells I knew that we needed to go to a bigger park if we wanted to see a larger display. We have no car but thankfully there is a beautiful park and woodland just a short train ride away. While I love being out in nature I am hopeless when it comes to directions but thankfully this park has a few way-marked trails, including a woodland trail and I remembered seeing bluebells on this route before so I felt that this would be a safe bet.

While there are a lot of popular blooms there is something unique about the bluebell. People seem to go out of their way to spot these flowers, there are specific bluebell walks plus at this time of year you’ll see several articles and posts sharing tips on the best places to see them. Twice on our walk we were asked if we had seen bluebells, the first time was before we had spotted any so we were able to advice a group not to take the trail we had just come from. Later on we spotted the group again and seeing us they gleefully pointed out a cluster of bluebells. Then further along the trail we saw a second group of people who asked us if we had seen bluebells and this time we were able to tell them that yes we had, they should follow the route we had taken and yes it would be worth the wait.

Daffodils are popular as they mark the end of winter and the start of brighter days but they don’t seem to engender the same feelings of devotion as the bluebell. My favourite colour is purple so I love seeing these flowers as they convert the dull earthen forest floor into a vibrant carpet of purple. I have seen daffodils covering a whole patch of woodland. Apparently the collective noun for daffodils is a host, so I should say a have seen a host of daffodils and it is stunning but people don’t seem to go on daffodil walks or seek them out in the way they do with bluebells, why is that? Purple can’t be everyone’s favourite colour, some people must prefer yellow and both flowers have a trumpety look about them – I apologise if I’m getting too technical here! So why does the bluebell get the trails and the daffodil, while popular, is just accepted as a happy sight but nothing more? I can only assume it’s to do with the time of the year.

Daffodils generally start to appear in February, although I have seen them as early as January. Whenever we first spot them it is a happy moment as while we’ll still be bundled up in our winter coat, hat, scarf and gloves; seeing these cheery yellow flowers means we’re survived another winter and while there is still a chill in the air, we’ve turned a corner and brighter days are coming. However they are not here yet, so we’ll go for a walk and smile at the daffodils, the crocuses and snowdrops too, but we’ll still want to scurry home to a warming hot chocolate. But when the bluebells arrive in April it’s a sign that winter is well & truly gone, we are definitely into spring now. The days are longer and (hopefully) warmer and so now the trumpet flowers are heralding the arrival of warmth and light rather than just hinting at them.

The funny thing is I had no intention of writing about bluebells and daffodils, I was originally going to write a post about why May is the ideal month for walking. I think I’ve covered that before and seeing bluebells is a contributory factor so it still works. Although this is one of the things I like about both walking and writing, the fact that even when you have a destination in mind, you won’t necessarily take the route you were expecting too but as long as you get there in the end and enjoyed the journey then does it matter? I like walking for several reasons and one is the fact that it’s a great way to solve a problem. If you’re stuck on something, have the question in your mind as you go for a stroll and more often than not you’ll have an answer by the time you finish your walk. And sometimes even if the physical walk sticks to the path, the mental journey you take will be full of unexpected twists and turns. It seems the same thing can happen with writing as well as one thought can lead you on an unexpected diversion but sometimes the journey is more important than the destination.

That’s how I stroll.