Gallery: an April selection (2023)
April, the angel of the months, the young love of the year
Vita Sackville-West
As well as being a successful novelist and poet, Vita Sackville-West is known for the beautiful gardens she created at Sissinghurst in Kent. She will have welcomed April as all gardeners do … but maybe not the April we have had this year.
The weather in London (and in much of the country) has been disappointing this month. We’ve had a lot of rain, and the drier days have been chilly, with a cold easterly wind at times. But right at the end of the month the sun came out and we had a couple of days of warmer, brighter weather. Maybe spring has finally, properly, arrived?
Despite the weather the many street trees near our house of course produced their blossom on cue (or maybe just a few days late). But I only occasionally got the blue skies that would show it off properly. And the early blossoming trees were hit with rain and strong winds, so the petals came down like snow.
Eventually our garden started to show some progress too, with the little apple tree and the lilac flowering. And one of the rare brighter days found me staying overnight with a friend in Norfolk, in her lovely old house right by two waterways, a river (the Great Ouse) and a drainage channel.
Towards the end of the month we spent a long weekend in Tirana, Albania, with mostly great weather and plenty of interesting sights. I’ve only included a few photos from there as many will appear in future posts. One already has, in fact, but in a black and white edit. Below you will find the original colour version.
On the very last day of the month we took a train north to Newcastle for an overnight stay. I captured the roof of Kings Cross Station, usually illuminated in blue (see a previous image here), now in red to mark the King’s coronation next weekend.
Technical notes
Most of these photos were taken with my phone. However the camellia, sunset blossom, parakeet and colourful tulips were taken with my Panasonic Lumix bridge camera.
Some of these photos were taken with my phone, some with my ‘point and shoot’ Panasonic Lumix (including those in Tirana) and a few with my Lumix bridge camera. All were edited in Photoshop Elements and many also in Color Efex Pro.
As always I am linking my selection to Ju-Lyn’s and Brian’s Changing Seasons challenge (link to Brian to follow once he posts).
Street tree in Ealing 2023-04-03 
Street tree in Ealing 2023-04-04 
Street tree in Ealing 2023-04-04 
Apple tree blossom, Ealing 2023-04-16 
Lilac blossom, Ealing 2023-04-16 
Lilac blossom, Ealing 2023-04-16 
Fen drainage in Norfolk 2023-04-18 
River Great Ouse, Norfolk 2023-04-18 
Paper lampshade and tree at night in a Tirana restaurant 2023-04-20 
White hyacinths in Tirana’s RC Cathedral, lit by a stained glass window 2023-04-21 
Artist in Tirana 2023-04-21 
In the Grand Park, Tirana 2023-04-23 
Wisteria in the Grand Park, Tirana 2023-04-23 
Hanging over a garden wall in Ealing 2023-04-25 
The Millennium Bridge and St Paul’s Cathedral, London 2023-04-29 
Kings Cross Station, London 2023-04-30
I mentioned that we went to Newcastle. The reason for our brief visit was a match at St James’s Park, our first home game since the upturn in the team’s performances and fans’ delight following the takeover in October 2021. We enjoyed the fantastic atmosphere, and a 3-1 victory over Southampton. I captured the mood on (rather blurry) video as the teams came out before the match.
41 Comments
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SoyBend
Loved your lilacs, Sarah. Ours are nowhere close to blossoming yet. I like how they fill the air with their scent.
Sarah Wilkie
I love the scent of lilacs too. When I was a child we had a white one by our back door that I used to climb and sit in – heavenly at blossom time!I hope yours flower soon 💜
Amy
Beautiful slide! The paper lampshad is special especially!
Sarah Wilkie
Thank you Amy – that lampshade was a lucky spot as I was eating dinner!
Gianluca Brescia
Beautiful flowers 🏵
Sarah Wilkie
Grazie Gianluca 😃
Gianluca Brescia
You’re welcome 🌺🌼🌻🪻
wetanddustyroads
Even though the month of April wasn’t on its best behaviour, you still got some beautiful photos … the blossoms against the blue sky are always a winner! Oh, and what a great atmosphere at the game!
Sarah Wilkie
Thank you 😊 Yes, it’s hard to beat the impact of blossoms against a blue sky (especially when you haven’t seen many such blue skies for a while!) and also hard to beat the atmosphere at St James’ Park these days!
Wind Kisses
I loved the lilacs and wish I could smell them. The artist working was my favorite. Her colorful attire along with art surrounding her was a great capture. I am sure she would have loved that photo too. I know I always tell you that about your people photos, but it is true. You capture people at just the right moments.
Sarah Wilkie
Thanks so much Donna 😊 I took several photos of that artist and this was probably my favourite. It worked well in the B&W edit, but I also rather liked how the colour of her trousers matched the painting behind.
Wind Kisses
Yes. I do love black and white, but for me this was all about the color…and being an artist. Very nice.
Margaret
Such beautiful photographs but the paper lampshade and tree at night in Tirana – oh my! 😍
Sarah Wilkie
Thank you Margaret 😊 I confess I was pleased with that one. We were eating dinner by an open window as it got dark and I suddenly realised the potential of that lampshade and had to grab my camera mid-mouthful!
Ingrid
Lovely collection of images. I especially enjoyed your floral pics.
Sarah Wilkie
Thank you Ingrid, glad you enjoyed them 🙂
ThingsHelenLoves
A beautiful set of images, blossom season is so lovely. Enjoyed the football footage, can’t beat the match day atmosphere!
Sarah Wilkie
Thank you Helen 🙂 The atmosphere at St James’ Park has been amazing this season, and with good reason!
thehungrytravellers.blog
Yes we jeep hearing that we didn’t miss much weather wise in April. Looking more and more like Champions League football next season too….
Sarah Wilkie
Yes, we’re getting hopeful of that, and who would have thought it possible at the start of the season? The fans were all singing ‘Tell me Me, me Ma … We’re going to Italy’ 😍 I reckon European football of some sort is pretty much guaranteed but we have some tough matches to come.
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bushboy
A wonderful slideshow Sarah. The footy video was good and well caught atmosphere.
Thanks for joining in The Changing Seasons 🙂
Sarah Wilkie
Thank you Brian 🙂 I wanted to link to you but I couldn’t find a Changing Seasons post from you yet this month. Did I miss it?
Monkey's Tale
So pretty and for us so early!! We finally saw crocus today, so these blooms are much appreciated! Maggie
Sarah Wilkie
Oh yes, you seem to be well behind us Maggie – I’m glad your flowers are now starting to appear. Actually these are late for us. Looking at last year’s photos I can see similar blossom shots taken about three weeks earlier, in the latter half of March!
Monkey's Tale
Jealous!
sustainabilitea
Beautiful, Sarah! I especially enjoyed the shot of the blossoms and the lamp. We’re rugby fans rather than football/soccer, but understand the fun of seeing your team play and (hopefully) win. 🙂
Sarah Wilkie
Thank you Janet 🙂 I think fans of any sport understand the joy of a victory!
Rose
What a lovely blossom-filled April! I could almost smell the blooms from here. 😊 Thanks for sharing video of your home team, it was fun to watch.
Sarah Wilkie
Glad you enjoyed this Rose, both blossoms and football!
grandmisadventures
I love the idea of spring being a young love. Beautiful flowers to welcome spring and a great soccer game to cheer on sound fantastic 🙂
Sarah Wilkie
Yes, despite some chilly days it’s been a good month and the football was a great way to end it 😀
margaret21
Thanks for bringing a burst of spring to me after a chilly old day. And the video … served to make me sure I’d never willingly go again to a football match. Luckily, my grandsons, who are the only ones likely to offer to take me won’t do so any more, because the odd time they’ve done so, ‘their’ team has lost. Phew!
Sarah Wilkie
Glad you enjoyed the dose of spring Margaret 😀 The video was intended to make going to a match look exciting, not to put you off 🤣⚽ The match hadn’t even started at that point!
margaret21
I rest my case. 😉
Mike and Kellye Hefner
What a fabulous dose of spring, Sarah! The street trees in Ealing really show off the beauty of the season. Your spring weather sounds almost identical to how ours has been. We also had petals from the trees falling like snow during windy days.
Sarah Wilkie
Thank you Kellye, glad you enjoyed my dose of spring. It seems to have been a bit later in a lot of countries this year!
Alli Templeton
A superb gallery for April, Sarah, and you’ve captured the essence of spring in all it’s flower-filled glory. Being a purple person I particularly love the lilac blossom, and it was lovely to see the apple blossom too. We have a baby heritage apple tree in our garden and the flowers look very similar. Interesting to read about the weather you’ve had in London. We seem to have fared better in Wales this month with quite a few sunny and warm days, so I’ll consider myself lucky for that! And well done to Newcastle for their win! Great stuff – we’re up in Northumberland again for a couple of weeks at the end of July, and looking forward to going back to Hadrians Wall, the Sycamore Gap and all the northern castles. In the meantime, thanks for all the lovely colours and the taste of this fine season. 🙂
Sarah Wilkie
Thanks so much Ali 😊 I love the purple flowers too – the wisteria around our way is just coming into its own.💜
Alli Templeton
Ah yes, I used to live in an 18th century cottage with wisteria wound all over the front. This was my favourite time of year! 💜 🙂