Hellebores (Christmas Rose or Lenten Lily)

Today i was dog sitting for a friend, who has a beautiful garden. between the heavy showers (Alas the snow did not extend this far south, although parts of England did get some), I took some photos.
Jean has a lovely collection of hellebores also known as the Christmas Rose or the Lenten Lily .

All the flowers here are hellebores.

Happy Easter

It has been bitterly cold today, we even had a few flurries of snow when we walked the dogs this morning. I haven't seen any foals in the Forest yet but hopefully one will appear soon.
The Greater Spotted Woodpecker was taken at Blashford lakes on Wednesday. As we were walking back to the car we saw one on the feeder but he flew away before we could get a photo. We could hear the drumming and knew one was close and suddenly Karen spotted him high up in an oak tree. Although he was a long way off and I had to crop the photo to ge a good look at him i was pretty pleased with the result.

Good Friday

It is a Long weekend as today and Monday are both public holidays. The weather is good and the Forest is busy, the campsites look as if hey were filling up as people take advantage of the good weather.
This morning we walked from The Canadian Cross and in the space of about 90 minutes we gave directions to four different groups as they tried to follow walks and cycle routes. We took a slightly different route today and found a hidden bridg over the stream . At the moment the forest is dry and we were able to walk wearing trainers.
On the way home we found our second foal of the year and stopped to take some photos. We also called in at Cadmans Pond to see wht the Geese were getting up too.
Late this afternoon we went for another walk at Culverley. This car park has been closed for several years but has now been reopened . We discovered another little bridge and on the trees nearby we found a very hard bracket fungus. It looked like stone and was very smooth on top.