A Walk in Dixon Woods

It was a beautiful day today and, not wanting to drive far, we decided to try Dixon Wood on the opposite of the road to Bradley for a change.  In some ways it is more attractive than Bradley with a more open woodland with quite a large number of hazel coppice stools in evidence.  Bluebells were again plentiful, as was stitchwort and one or two good patches of early purple orchids.  Red campions were coming into flower and there were still some primroses showing flowers.  Initially the scent of may blossom was heavy on the air, but as we got further around the wood, the cool breeze off the sea brought the heavy aroma of oil seed rape.  In one of the more open areas which must be more acidic, bracken was growing up amongst the bluebells.  At one point we came across a very large patch of thriving bugle, the blue flower spikes thrusting up through the surrounding vegetation.  The down side of Dixon Wood over Bradley is that a good stretch of the footpath runs along side the road, busy with traffic using Bradley Road as a shortcut to the main Louth road, so it gets intrusively noisy.