#209 - Horse-Chestnut blossom

I've never really looked at the individual flowers on a horse-chestnut before, the tree is so spectacular from a distance, holding up its white candles in the Springtime. Close up, each blossom is like a crumpled piece of tissue paper, a surprisingly fragile looking wisp of creased pink and white petal.

#208 - Bergenia

I like the deep pink flowers against the old grey of the fence post.

#207 - Bluebell

Bluebells... sigh...so pwitty, as my three year old would say. Blue striped flowers with purple ribbons.

#206 - Wild Garlic

After the rain this afternoon, the sky was just that perfect shade of blue.

#205 - Flower in the Rain

#204 - Sycamore on Brick

New leaves uncrumpling into the sunshine all gleaming and coppery...mmm... I love the way the world is getting dressed.

#203 - Dandelion Clocks

Beautiful dandelion clocks at twilight.

#202 - Sunny days

Clap along if you feel like a room without a roof...
Clap along if you feel like happiness is the truth...

#201 - Daisy weather

All the sunshine has brought out the daisies...

#200 - Cherry Laurel

The most striking thing about all the Spring flowers are their incredible stamens that look so delicate but which outlast the petals and are beautiful in their own right. Each flower, even the minuscule ones on this shrub, has its own perfect diadem.

#199 - Creeping Charlie on Silver birch

Saw these hidden in the long grass today, snatches of purple between the green stalks.

#198 - Cowslip

Such an ugly name for a flower,  and apparently it has some charming epithets - 'key flower', 'key of heaven', 'fairy cups' and, my personal favourite, the delightful, 'peggle'. Walking out this afternoon, the grass crowded with cowslips, the air was full of their subtle fragrance. It was like inhaling Spring, taking in deep breaths of its essence, life, hope, light... whatever it is that Spring means that so lifts the heart.

#197 - Norway Maple Flowers

Our tree with the beautiful leaves has finally identified itself by growing flowers, green ones! I thought they were bright new leaves and was looking at them admiringly when I realised they were actually clusters of flowers. I don't think I've seen a green flower before but it certainly works.

#196 - Green Alkanet

Came around a hedge this afternoon and this blue was just there - it was an "O my God, what am I" moment (one of my favourite Sylvia Plath lines).

#195 - Blackthorn Blossom

Mmmm, that is all.

#194 - Grape Hyacinth

The gardens are bursting into colour, everywhere looks so bright and spring-like and almost every flower-bed has this gorgeous purple-blue in it. Grape Hyacinths are a flower I remember from my childhood garden so I always feel fondly towards them, and the colour is so vibrant it makes you think of sunny days. It looks particularly spectacular against all the bright yellow forsythia which is also in every garden at this time of year. 

#193 - Skimmia japonica

This shrub was in one of our local parks, smelling oh so sweetly.  And close up, the clusters of flowers were individually perfect, each tiny little blossom exquisitely simple.

#192 - Wood Violet

I was astonished to see so many violets under the garden hedges we passed yesterday, it's not a flower I expected to see in the city and growing so carelessly too, next to the pavement.