Helen Johnson

I love the soft lustre of salt glaze pottery. Garden flowers in a sweet little jug found at Kyre Park Antiques Barn, Tenbury Wells, Worcestershire #Worcestershire

It's a photograph I have taken time and time again over the last half century: Britannia sitting atop her eponymous buildings in Elland. During the 1970s and 80s, the scene was stark - stone, soot slate and a few brave saplings. By 2016, when this version was taken, vegetation was in charge and Britannia wore a leafy crown.

Brass of buttercup, deepest eye-blue of speedwell, quietness of bugle, promise of wild strawberry, fading of a final cowslip... All this can flourish in tiny patches of wild earth, as shown today on Crickley Hill, in the care of @gloswildlife, Gloucestershire!

It's been a very good spring for Painted Lady butterflies, and looks like it will be a bumper summer too, as more and more arrive here on the Suffolk coast - this one feeding on Green Alkanet (8th May 2026) @BC_Suffolk @savebutterflies @BBCSpringwatch

‘Horse chestnut’ Trees (1963) Artist: SR Badmin

#Thursgate Yorkshire

S. John of Beverley was Bishop of Hexham, and later of York. He founded the town of Beverley by building a monastery there. Reputedly born in Harpham, Yorkshire, where the church (below) is dedicated to him, he died in Beverley on 7th May, 721 and was canonised in 1037.

@BooksTeaFilms @CaritasKhanasak Absolutely beautiful!

Baddesley Clinton #windowsonwednesday

The view from the Drawing Room at the Churchills' former home @ChartwellNT this morning.

Medieval floor tile from St. Mary's Church at Higham Ferrers in Northamptonshire. 📸 My own. #TilesOnTuesday #HighamFerrers

@ianebbage1 A lovely place.

@mrshmjohnson We were there on Monday!

Lead water butt (1841) - Newby Hall, Yorkshire #AllMetalMonday

Tree and topiary in the grounds of Richmond Castle, Yorkshire… #ThickTrunkTuesday

#thicktrunktuesday #newforest

Farndale #thicktrunktuesday

Lovely to see the return of honesty under the hedge this year.

England’s smallest natural timepiece still keeps watch on our walls and paths. The Scarlet Pimpernel, known for centuries as the Poor Man’s Weather-glass or Shepherd’s Clock. A tiny wildflower often found growing from old walls, churchyards and cracks in stone across England. For generations, people used it as a natural clock. The petals open in sunlight and close before rain or evening. Folk belief claimed the flower could predict the weather. If the flower stayed shut in the morning, rain was said to be on the way. A small flower once woven into the rhythms of English life for centuries. Have you spotted these growing on old stone walls? Follow @oaksandlions for more post on England's wildlife. #England #EnglishWildlife #EnglishFolkore #Wildflowers

The Brickyard, Eric Ravilious,1936. It depicts a scene at Sible Hedingham, #Essex. The original artwork is in the collection of @AshmoleanMuseum.

'May' from 'The Months', Eliot Hodgkin, 1951. There's double hawthorn (may blossom), fragrant lily of the valley, cowslips, magnolia stellata, a tiny red azalea, a head of rhubarb flower, broad beans, garlic, the first summer fruits and a blackbird's egg.

Still ringing on May Day #FlowersOnFriday