I love warm evenings of golden sunlight and long shadows. Spring is the season of optimism and potential, the fresh green leaf and bright blossom heralding a promise of new beginnings and brighter things ahead. Mid April teased a few gloriously sunny and hot days, before spring retreated as suddenly as it had arrived, and a winter chill descended. Temperatures dropped precipitously back into low single figures centigrade. But the tide of spring has already turned and can't be held back, and everywhere you look trees and hedgerows and gardens are bursting into bloom and new leaf.