Spring returns!

After the bitter weather of weeks past, wonder | wander | women were starting to wonder if spring was ever coming back. The week of snow definitely didn't help, although it was certainly pretty.

But this week the clocks went forward. We went home after work in broad daylight, and noticed that the trees were full of birdsong and green was suddenly everywhere!

The moss came first, creeping over stone and creating tiny fairy gardens on cement walls.

Despite one of my favourite books being called Mossflower, I didn't realise moss actually grows flowers...but it does!

Beech Gardens at the Barbican Estate is a roof landscape by architect Nigel Dunnet - one of our favourite places to visit and write about. London residents and visitors need to spend some time here, and see the exhibit on how the monumental landscape and lush gardens emerged from the ashes of WWII.

Strange leaves and greens cover the ground and draw the eye to their brightness. Some of the green turned out to be early flowers too!

Then the colours started marching in. A blaze of yellow daffodils, the iconic spring flower:

Smaller, more intensely coloured pond flowers:

Bright pink clusters:

And points of white from the flowers my schoolmates and I used to call 'fingernail daisies':

Which is when I noticed the true harbinger of spring: the bees are back! You know it's spring when the wildlife is busily working to make new life - we joke about the birds and the bees but the rebirth of the year is truly magical to see.

Happy Easter, everyone!