April, the angel of the months, the young love of the year
Vita Sackville-West, English author and garden designer
Vita, as a gardener, will have welcomed April as do all the gardeners here in England. Some years it can be disappointing but this year it has for the most part lived up to her description of it as ‘the angel of the months’. We have had a lot of days with blue sky and sunshine, and although not necessarily warm at the start of the month, we finished with a few days of spring heatwave with temperatures in the mid 20s, more akin to June or even August than April!
Of course the exception was the Easter weekend which fell quite late this year and as predictably cool and damp, but I guess the gardeners among us welcomed that rain too.
Springtime in Ealing
No travels for us this month but we kept busy at home for sure. There were the usual meals out and two cinema visits (Mr Burton and The Penguin Lessons). We went to the Saatchi Gallery where there was a variety of free exhibitions, and to the London Independent Photographers (LIP) exhibition in Shoreditch where one of my friends from our Ealing satellite group was exhibiting. We also enjoyed our annual visit to the Sony World Photography Awards at Somerset House.
There was family time too. We had lunch with my sister and brother-in-law one day earlier in the month and also visited them on Easter Monday when the whole family got together, including my fast-growing great niece (now eating ‘real’ food and trying to crawl!) And talking of Easter, we visited our next-door neighbours on Easter Sunday to meet their new baby.
I had dinner one evening with a friend from Canada who was overnighting in London on his way to Nepal, and lunch one day with former colleagues from my time at Westminster Libraries (1998-2003!) I went to a meeting of Ealing LIP as well as helping to take down our successful exhibition. And I went to two U3A activities: an interesting talk about the Fall of Civilisations, and a group outing to visit Goldsmiths Hall in the City of London, one of the oldest of our livery companies. More on that in a future post!
I also helped out with some Plan Zheroes activities, taking minutes for a Board meeting and attending an event about waste for some London businesses.
When not busy with those activities I took lots of photos, especially of blossom and the spring flowers in our small garden. I’m also a little obsessed with tulips and always have a vase in the house at this time of year! I enjoyed using the very good macro setting on my new phone as well as testing a like-for-like replacement for my Panasonic Lumix point and shoot camera which had developed a fault.
Technical notes
Most of these shots were taken with my phone but I took the new camera on a walk in our local park, Walpole, and also on the outing to Goldsmith’s Hall. Most have been at least a little edited with Photoshop Elements and some more heavily edited with Nik Color Efex. The single black and white image (it’s been a colourful month!) was edited with Nik Silver Efex Pro.
As always I am linking my selection to Ju-Lyn’s and Brian’s Changing Seasons challenge. Use the arrows to navigate the slideshow if you want to see all the images.
15 Comments
Alison
Such a busy month. I love all the edited photos.
Sarah Wilkie
Thank you Alison, we do like to keep busy and make the most of London 🙂
Alli Templeton
There’s a lot of truth in the saying ‘there’s no place like home’, and this collection proves it! A beautiful splash of colour showing spring at it’s best. You’re an expert at capturing flowers and their natural wonder. Looking right into the centre of the purple flower reminds us that life on Earth is going on even at this micro level, and that it’s a vital part of our planet’s delicate ecosystems, something we all too often forget. Excellent shots all, Sarah. 🙂
Sarah Wilkie
Thanks so much Alli 😊 There is a lot of truth in that saying, but I don’t think I’d appreciate home so much if I were here all the time! I like our balance of travel and home time 🙂 I’m glad you like that macro tulip shot – I’m a bit obsessed with tulips, as I said, and like to capture them from all angles!
Alli Templeton
Tulips are one of the highlights of spring! 🙂
Vicki
Wonderful images, especially the pink tulip which looks very much like a piece of hand drawn and watercolour Botanical art.
Gosh, you are a busy beaver socially. I’m lucky to have the energy for one family visit (but then I do live like a hermit or recluse). Good to hear you had time for those photography exhibitions. I used to go to the Botanical Art exhibition at the Herbarium (Royal Botanic Gardens) and wondered if you had seen any Botanical Art yourself?
Sarah Wilkie
Thank you very much Vicki 🙂 I do like to keep pretty busy and take advantage of what London has to offer! I’m glad you like that tulip – I gave it a different background as the original was quite messy and I was pleased with the colour contrast. There is a gallery showing botanical art at Kew Gardens, not far from us, but I confess I prefer the real thing when it comes to flowers so have never been inside!
bushboy
Fabulous flowers Sarah. Sure is spring over there. I love the street art. A wonderful action filled April as usual.
Thanks for joining in The Changing Seasons 😀
Sarah Wilkie
Thank you Brian 🙂 I was spoiled for choice when it came to flower photos this month!
Anne Sandler
You’ve been busy Sarah. I loved all your images, especially the first.
Sarah Wilkie
Thank you Anne, I’m pleased you enjoyed them 🙂
Sue
What a marvellous month April Was for you!
Sarah Wilkie
On the whole it was Sue, thanks 🙂
Ritva Sillanmäki Photography
Why, I am never that active.. you had lots of people to see and things to do. Good for you. I would be exhausted.
Sarah Wilkie
Oh there was plenty of downtime too, but that’s not so interesting to write about or photograph!