This year there is no public open day viewing of the bluebells in Perivale Wood, so I thought I would show some of the highlights here instead.
The bluebell flowering coincides with the stitchwort and celandine and you can see all three in some locations. We also saw a magnificent display of the cuckoo flower – with much debate about whether they were pale pink or pale blue! Some saw one and some saw the other!
There is also a lovely little stream tricking down from the canal to the ponds at the bottom of the wood. We were told its source used to be north of the Grand Union canal from Horsenden hill but that nowadays it is probably just a leak from the canal, since the flow is highly regular throughout the year.
Also about 8m down in the SW corner of Perivale Wood there now, at least temporarily, nestles one of the HS2 tunnel boring machines (TBMs), having arrived from its journey from Northolt. Two more TBMs are heading west to this spot from old oak common. I had assumed the HS2 tunnel would be much deeper, and wonder whether the noise of the trains once running will be regularly heard in the wood?