Signs of spring, signs of hope: by Sue Purkiss

 Like most people, I've been profoundly shocked by the terrible things that are happening in the world at the moment. Who could ever have thought that we would be seeing images on our screens that could come straight from a history book of the Second World War? Every day, more and more tragic stories - I'm not going to enumerate them here, you've all seen them. And of course that's not the only war, and not the only bad news. 

But I've been lucky enough to have some time away, in Brussels where I have family, and on nearby Exmoor. Plus, I live amid beautiful countryside. I take a lot of photographs, because it helps me to really notice things, and because I simply enjoy making images. And so this month, I'm just going to post some pictures of what nature has carried on doing while we humans have been preoccupied with other stuff. I hope you'll like them.

From our fist visit to Exmoor in March: gnarled, twisty roots and trunks of the beech trees which started off as hedges but have escaped and grown into trees - they're all over Exmoor.

The Hoar Oak, which is at the centre of a bleak area of moor. It's over a hundred years old, and it replaces a previous tree - you can see by its small size how it struggles to survive.

A path which runs along the valley of the Barle - and another Ent-like tree.

And now to Brussels, and cherry blossom by a lake on the edge of the Foret de Soignes.

Masses of tulips in the grounds of a castle north of Brussels.

Back on Exmoor - a pink bluebell amongst the blue ones on a bank near Withypool.

The gorse is at its peak at the moment - there couldn't possibly be more flowers packed onto each bush. This is looking along the coast towards Trentishoe Down.

I didn't see this flower anywhere else - it was growing near Heddon's Mouth, and I think it's called sea campion.

Heddon's Mouth. The smoothly rounded pebbles were the colours of sugared almonds.

Wild flowers growing thickly beside a path in the churchyard at Trentishoe: a tiny church in a tiny village.

(For more information about Exmoor and its history, see also this post on The History Girls.)