I don't think it terms of it having bluebells too often, but I do find it relatively easy to picture a peaceful wooded place full of little pools. I do wonder though how much my Wood in my head differs from.the Wood in Lewis's head, in the sort of trees present, or the quality of light, or whatever. I suspect my Wood-light may be brighter than he meant because I am so used to green light meaning semitropical sun turning all the leaves to stained glass...

And if I think of it flowering at all the "default wildflowers" I am most used to are white clover and these tiny five-petal yellow things I don't know the proper name for but which I nickname elanor because of Tolkien. Big mounds of clover spreading everywhere, and the yellow sort clustering in smaller clumps underneath things maybe.

@helenp I haven't been to Britain, so I probably unconsciously imagined it similarly to American forests or gardens that I've been to. According to a search I just made, there are bluebells in the Great Lakes region, where I'm originally from, but they're sometimes considered invasive. The climate and topography of that part of the country might be a little similar to UK, since it's usually very rainy.

As for the description of the reddish soil, Georgia clay is what always came to mind.

Posted by: @helenp

Lewis was an English/Irish writer and described his home flora and fauna in the books.  Does this make reading the Chronicles more difficult for non-Brits not used to the nature he describes?

It didn't for me, growing up in Australia. I was just so totally immersed in this magical world that Lewis created that it didn't matter whether or not I'd ever seen the exact kinds of flowers he describes as blooming in quick succession as the Witch's winter ends, or that I'd never even seen a non-talking badger or squirrel, let alone a talking one! We get enough British films and TV shows and literature in Australia that I had at least some idea of what that part of the world looks like, but Lewis's descriptions in themselves are usually vivid enough that I would have loved the story even if I had absolutely no idea what plants and animals he was talking about.

In fact, thinking about it, even the one huge outstanding difference that could have stuck out to me as a child, didn't. I was only about 4 1/2 years old when my mum first read The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe to me, and of course the first impression of Narnia we get in that first book is that it's covered in snow — I'd never seen snow in my life — and, most memorably, that the White Witch makes it "always winter and never Christmas." Christmas in Australia is in the summer. I knew already that it's the other way around in the northern hemisphere, because in Australia, we get an absurd amount of Christmas decorations with a snowy / wintery theme. Even as a little kid, I thought that was utterly ridiculous. (It still is, from a southern hemisphere point of view.)

But I remember clearly that as soon as we read the part where Mr Tumnus utters that famous line — "Always winter and never Christmas" — I "got" exactly what that meant. Endless cold and darkness and despair with no joy and festivity and promise of better things to come. I should add that my family were (and are) not religious — I had only the very vaguest idea of the Nativity story and knew nothing much about Jesus or Christianity in general until I started school a bit over a year later. And yet that line in the story made perfect sense to me and stayed with me as a powerful summing-up of just how terrible the White Witch was. So really, I don't think it's essential to be British or Irish, or even to come from the northern half of the world, to get the full impact of the world that Lewis created in the Chronicles.

(And I should add that, having moved to the UK as an adult, I can confirm that all my impressions of it from books and films as a child were very accurate. Well, except that there aren't any hobbits here. I believe they are more likely to be found in New Zealand. )

Here in Michigan the natural world is much like Narnia even though the animals and plants may be different. We also have landscapes that are covered with snow which makes it quite easy to picture the world behind the wardrobe. There are quiet places here like the Woods Between the Worlds and it doesn’t matter that much if not a lot happens there. The difference in flora and fauna is only in the species, which doesn’t matter that much in understanding a story.  The area where I grew up has much in common with Lewis’ own landscapes, although the rural portion of it is more like Narnia than the small town in which I live.