I found this account of a recent visit to Blashford Lakes while scrolling through Twitter and thoroughly enjoyed reading of Amanda’s experience while there, including her reflections on what a previous visitor to the site nearly 100 years ago would make of the changes were they to visit today. Plenty of other beautifully written and personal observations of the New Forest to be found in her other posts too:
In which I see a Kingfisher and chat with a Robin
Out of this field the path enters another, and then another, where for a while it wanders hand in hand with a hazel-shadowed, golden stream where trout are to be found. The stream has an open bay where dogs like to swim and where children with glass jars, bare legs and infinite patience, catch minnows. Once I saw a kingfisher dart across this bay and speed a dim, blue flicker up the dusky hazel avenue beyond, and once—oh! memorable day—I surprised a great grey heron at his fishing.
Joan Begbie, Walking in the New Forest, published 1934
Blashford Lakes: a place of history and past change
Just beyond the western edge of the New Forest National Park’s present-day boundary lies the place that has, perhaps, seen the most change since Joan Begbiewrote about her forest walks in her…
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Blashford Lakes Nature Reserve 