Spring in Stanmer Park

Glorious weather today! I had a very enjoyable photo shoot in Shoreham at lunch time with the lovely, fascinating Ann O'Keife. In the evening I headed to Stanmer Park for a walk, just when the sun was low in the sky and cast a lovely light into the new budding leaves in the trees and shrubs.

Zebedee had the UNfortune of meeting a real bitch today... look at her: first she approached the jovial Mr. Zebedee looking perfectly friendly and normal. See? Zebedee glanced back at me as if to say "Hey, look: canines! Cool! Let's play!"

"Hi, Ms Pointer! How's it going?"

But suddenly this bitch starts to growl....

...and she lunges at Zed!

Bastard! Anyway, we left the stroppy bitches and continued our merry way exploring the woods in the springtime.

There is a certain type of tree that still has its dead leaves; there are a few of these trees here and there in the park. (Hopefully I will find out one day what type of tree this is.) This following photo looks like it could have been taken in the autumn rather than spring.

Back to buds.

When we drove back to town I noticed that the sun was just setting, so I drove to the seafront and took a few photos.

What a lovely day....! :-)

Budding leaves

Look! Leaves! Very soon! Whoo-hoo!

More spring flowers

The first cherry blossoms are out!






And daffodils are in full bloom everywhere.






Seaford Head, seen from Newhaven's Castle Hill.

Signs before "first" signs of spring

Yesterday I said crocuses and daffodils are the first signs of spring, but I lied. I've forgotten to mention and photograph even earlier spring flowers: Snowdrops!



I've seen snowdrops here are there for the past week or two, but by now most of them have... errr - dropped. I only found a few that were still intact.



As I said yesterday, won't be long till daffodils and crocuses are in bloom everywhere.















Don't know what these buds are, but I thought they looked great.



Back on the river bank, Zebedee caught another bunny. This one didn't try to run away, though.



In the evening I went to London to see Aya and her friend. After a very nice dinner on Brick Lane, I couldn't walk past Spitalfields Market without stopping to take some photos.


















Must go and shoot in London some time soon again!

First signs of spring

Saw these daffs on the way to the local woods today. It won't be long now till the roads are lined with daffodils everywhere!



See, the frilly middle bit is there just about ready to come out.



The smaller variety - which, I learned from TV the other day, are endemic to Britain - are already in bloom in many places.



And of course crocuses... or is it croci... just about to bloom, as well.



Spring is almost here, and Zebedee is so excited he is just a blur.

Long-Awaited Leaves

These photos are nothing special, really, but I'm posting nevertheless as I love seeing leaves on trees after the looong, cold and wet winter/supposedly_spring that we have had! Just stopped to take a couple of shots on the way from Brighton to Newhaven this morning. I love the way it looks like new, tiny leaves have been sprinkled on the branches of the trees everywhere.