#325 - Sunlight on Apple Blossom

Another beautiful day with a long, light-filled afternoon... happy voices and children running across wide, green spaces in the sunshine. Wandering behind the pine trees I saw a tree covered in crumpled pink buds, just a few flowers on each bough were already open mouthed and crisply white, the petals casting their own stark shadows in the brightness.

#324 - Speedwell on Bark

Spring is late this year, the Speedwell is only just appearing in the grass. The flowers look as though they have been painted with watercolours, a wash of delicate blue and then a hint of pale violet so that they are sometimes one colour and sometimes the other.

#323 - Wood Violet on Moss

The woods were beautiful with violets today. A whole carpet of them under the trees, growing between the mossy rocks and roots on the riverbank.

#322 - Coltsfoot on Charred Wood

Some more beautiful bright flowers from the other day. These were closed because of the rain but I could still see them from across the park. Loud and insistent. 

#321 - Flowering Quince and Grass

Well, I wasn't expecting to find this somewhat exotic looking shrub hiding under the roots of a pine but it was a rather lovely surprise. On the earthy floor, covered in faded old pine needles and bark scales, the flowers seemed to have their own light, rather like the new green grass that is pushing up toward the sun.

#320 - Old and New

This little blossom tree stands in a copse of tall pines, they soar far overhead and shelter this cherry tree which blooms all winterlong. It is the same tree that I came across over a year ago on a dull December day, a miraculous flowering in the woods. I was trying to capture the incongruity of it when I placed these faintly blushing blossoms on the gnarled grey trunk of a fallen tree.

#319 - Fir cones

I like the way the scales on these fir-cones curl outwards ever so slightly so that they look like petals. Tawny coloured flowers from the forest floor.

#318 - Gorse on Good Friday

"For all creation is waiting eagerly..." The Bible (Romans 8:19)

Here, in the city, Spring is still only hinted at in most places. Coming round the path up in the hills yesterday, I saw this low gorse bush with it's candle-like flowers glowing vividly against the sombre evergreens. It made me think of those words in the bible about waiting eagerly, or, "in eager expectation". The hope of Spring, of new life and growth, seemed to be encapsulated in these bright little blooms.