Bluebells and AV-Gas

We set out this morning, a determined bunch of floral fanciers. We motored along for the ten or so minutes it takes to reach the start of the walk only to be stopped in our tracks by.......................MOTORSPORTS!

It was great fun really. I had a chat to some of the competitors, as we now had to walk for about ten minutes to get to the start of the walk, and they told me the event was held about six times a year. The Val des Terres (the steepest and windiest two-lane road on the Island) was closed to traffic to make way for time trials up the hill. My husband thought this was fabulous : We live on a small island. People like motorsports. We'll just close off one of the main roads into town and run time trials there. No Problems.

The cars lined up in this photo are all waiting their turn to roar, screech and smoke their way up the hill.

There were cars,

motorbikes (apparently the yellow covers help keep the tyres warm; you learn something new every day),

and go-carts. My son's eyes lit up when he saw these; especially when he realised that some of the competitors were his age.

I didn't get to see this special little number race but I wish I had.

I took note of this sign when I saw the flimsy railing between the spectators and the racers; particularly the fine print.

The green caravan is the commentary box was right next to the starting line. I bet their ears were aching by the end of the day. The motorsport regulars were very apparent as their kids were all wearing ear muffs. I didn't take a photos of any of them as I didn't want to freak out their parents - some weird woman they don't know taking photos of their kids.

I don't think the rail would have stopped anything much but it made people feel a bit better to have SOMETHING between them and all that burning rubber.

We finally made our way through the 'petrolhead' (as we would call them in Australia) crowd. My husband and son were having a wonderful time so we did stop to watch again on the way back from our walk. Here is the beginning of the climb to Bluebell Wood. If you enlarge the photo you can see the stairs winding up the side of the hill.

On our way we walked past the bathing pools. There are several of these 'sea' pools within an easy walk from St Peter Port.

It is high tide in this photo but when the tide goes out there is a ledge, to hold in the water, which runs around the pool with a railing across the top. You can just make out the railing sticking out of the water.

How quickly things change in nature. The hawthorne are already dropping their petals.

There is more blue this week than last but I think we will visit a few more times so we don't miss them at their best and bluest. My son has become quite the nature lover, despite his earlier petrolhead regression, and is very keen to come again.

I can't wait to see the full blue carpet over the coming weeks. Some people are fortunate enough to have their rear gardens back onto Bluebell Wood - what a lovely thing to look out your window and see.

It was a wonderful family day today; motorsports, bluebells, hedge vege-ing, sand castles, ice-creams, gardening, bouncing on the trampoline, swinging, skipping, talking, laughter and fun. I hope you enjoyed your Easter weekend as much.