Bluebells at Rufford Abbey

Spring brings us a time when the countryside and woodlands are filled with beautiful bluebells, these enticing blue flowers carpet the ground between the trees and make theses places even more inviting to explore.

With sunshine a plenty, we ventured over to the wonderful Rufford Abbey, it is a favourite spot of ours and as it's just 20 minutes up the road from us, it is a great place to head out for some time outside. With woodland, a ford, plenty of bird spotting opportunities, a park and gardens there is so much to do.

We headed out into the woods in search of some old logs on the woodland floor, they are great places to find bugs and little creatures, especially this time of the year as they start to come out of their winter slumber.

The woods are a great opportunity to explore and capture some beautiful moments, both of my children love to run and jump about, finding old tree stumps to stand on, we even found a tree that had fallen over and it was a beautiful opportunity to capture some family photos.

This time of year, as the trees start to unfurl their new leaves it and a wave of green washes over the land, is a great time to get out into the fresh air and embrace the outdoors.

After we'd spent an hour exploring the bluebells and woodland, we headed down to our other favourite spot, the ford, for a spot of car watching, we had a warm sausage roll for lunch and then headed back round the lake to park.

The park is always a hit with the children, who love to run through the tunnels and play in the sand. We took a wander back up to the abbey itself, underneath, there are rooms which were once home to the monks and staff who lived and worked in the once great house that also stood there. It's a great place to stop and learn about the history of the abbey and its visitors over the years, which included Charles II.

Wherever you live, I would highly recommend a visit to one of this countries many bluebell woods, last year we visited Bunny Wood and that was a true delight, with a vast blanket of bluebells to explore. I never appreciated them when I was younger, even though the woods near where we used to have a caravan were covered in them. Maybe like a lot of things in life they are something to be appreciated as you get older.