Oh, Hello Spring!

Spring is my favourite season! Just the sound of it makes me 'spring' into action after the bleaks of Winter, as I awaken to the new possibilities the year has to offer after I spent the winter strategising and researching business opportunities. Spring feels like a renaissance. Corsica awakens too. In fact, it unfolds with Spring. The air is sweet with the aroma of heather whose clusters burst out on the exposed hillsides. Rosemary is in full bloom and a magnet for pollinators that are buzzing out of the woodwork and filling the silence with the reassuring sound of nature at work. Songbirds are now joining in the chorus as they celebrate the coming to being of a brand new day, at the perfect point when night breaks into dawn. Meanwhile cytisus and genista are opening up to the world and casting their bright yellows into the delightful pantones of green that velvet-clad the rocky landscapes that tumble into the sea.

Not meaning to sound pretentious, but I've literally photographed thousands of wild plants since I first set foot in Corsica 4 years ago. Yet when it came to choose one that would symbolise Spring for this post, I thought about a happy compromise between this island and that other island, Britain, where I spent 16 years of my life. Ladies and Gentlemen, please welcome the delightful Centaurea cyanus (British Cornflower), brought over to you by a bag of seeds from the honorable Kew Royal Botanic Gardens, no less!

The Cornflower (Centaurea cyanus) peps up meadows, fields and prairies