It’s hardly a massive problem, but common none the less. When we decide to go someplace to visit in the Forest, the next question is where? We have some favoured spots, although proximity certainly has some bearing on it, but the enormous number of places often causes debate. If you recall the vultures from the Jungle Book cartoon you’ll have some idea of what I mean! True, having a wife who is registered disabled does remove any of the more arduous or inaccessible possibilities, but we’re not exactly short of options. One place that we visit is the Blackwater Arboretum at Rhinefield. It has the advantage of a fairly close car park and the access is via a relatively short walk, albeit uphill and decent paths. It’s fairly small and is a very pleasant stroll on a sunny afternoon.
Like most places it looks better at certain times of the year than others. Not too long after we moved down here, having been told it never snowed, it snowed. It didn’t last long, but the Ornamental Drive at Rhinefield where the Arboretum is, has fairly densely packed conifers in places and looked utterly magical with a covering of a couple of inches of snow. On a side note, if you like Giant Redwoods, there are a couple there. We do and they are a tree-huggers delight.
Anyway, no snow so far this year, but the Autumn colours have been astounding at times. Because of the types of trees in the Arboretum, we knew it would be a good show, so a week or so ago we visited and were not disappointed. It’s often the case that if you take a picture of something it never quite does the subject justice, and so it proved again. However I show a few of the pictures below just to give you a flavour anyway.
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