It is not often that a place is better to visit in winter than summer but Old Bolingbroke, nestled in a deep valley and protected by hills on three sides, is a good destination in winter or early Spring. The main attraction is the ruined castle which though not high has an intact curtain wall […]
Snowdrops in the Dale.
This year after a mild wet winter, more akin to Wales than Lincolnshire, the snowdrops were in bloom early and the Tennyson valley (Lower Lymndale) is a good place to admire them. These Lent lilies as Tennyson called them help lift the spirits and are an indication that the darkest days of winter are on […]
A White Snipe Dales
The dark dank days of December are sometimes difficult to bear but this can also be a magical time, which is partly why we have Christmas at this time of year. For me the other thing to look forward to in December is the first hard frost. It might come at the end of November […]
After the Rains
For much of Autumn this year Lincolnshire has suffered far more rain than this normally dry county usually receives. This was due to a series of slow moving depressions passing over southern Britain pulling in winds off the North Sea. This meant that rather than being in the rain shadow of high ground to […]
October Light
Most of October had been mild, wet and sometimes windy until a ridge of high pressure passed through giving a brief window of calmer weather. Ahead was the weekend for changing the clocks so this made it a good time to get up before light as with the clocks due to go back it […]
The Autumn Equinox
Over the last two years I have spent many days discovering the special nature of the southern Lincolnshire Wolds, which is often only revealed under the right conditions and often well away from any roads. This quest to understand the special qualities of this still unspoiled countryside was to help me write my blog tennysoncountry.com. […]
Discovering Tennyson Country
With studying and exploring the southern Lincolnshire Wolds in detail for tennysoncountry.com and researching many events through time, both geological and historical that created this intimate environment, this blog is as much about the landscape with which Tennyson was so familiar as it is about the great poet himself. These events not only moulded the […]
Green Hill
When at school I had to learn a hymn that started “There is a green hill far away”. The only green hills I was interested in back then were the Wolds, which I visited at weekends with friends on our bikes looking for steep hills and clear streams. The green hill I am standing […]
Damp Dale & Ashby Puerorum
Whereas Green Hill is made up of free draining chalk, as are the hills that surround it, just five miles away Damp Dale is a valley of impervious clay surrounded by ridges of drier sandstone. Along the boundary between the two types of strata many small streams issue from the ground and coalesce in the […]
All the land in flowery squares.
All the land in flowery squares, This is a line from Tennyson’s The Gardener’s Daughter a relatively early poem by the bard. It is referring to the countryside in May, which he was familiar with while growing up in Lymndale. The squares are small hedged fields filled with meadow flowers and much more. After then […]
