There’s an unmistakable “essence” of Easter that I’ve relished since the days of childhood meant that it was accompanied by the experience of eating a ton and a half of chocolate over the course of a long weekend.  Even if the sun fails to shine (we got a thorough drenching on our walk today!) – and perhaps especially so as the colours of spring shine out jewel-like on the rainiest of days –  it’s a time of the year that sees gardens and hedgerows bedecked in the freshest shades of green trimmed with pink, white and yellow blossom, a landscape awakened by the unfurling of leaves and the opening of buds until it is filled to the brim with a promise of all the abundance to come.

In fact, you can tell that there’s just a week or two to go before the leaves on the trees arrive properly in all their acid-green vibrancy and, with any luck, we can start to anticipate those long evenings of alfresco dining and days of wandering around in our shorts. For me, Easter school hols are a natural break in my work and visits to more than one garden in the past week (West Green Gardens and Basildon Park) on top of my usual stint of walks have allowed me to appreciate the fact that both the hawthorn blossom and the bluebells are out in full glory (the latter a month early!), that lambs are being born, birds are nesting and trees are starting to regain their colour.

To celebrate all of this, I’ve put together a slide show of photos that capture something of what this time of the year means to me – including shots taken of a lovely cat enjoying a sunny spot amidst the Easter decorations in the window of a florist shop in Henley-on-Thames last week!

To see more of my Easter photos, visit my recent photostream on Helen White Photography