Eliot Hodgkin, 'May', from 'The Months', 1951. The first broad bean, strawberry and cherry, as well as flowers I always associate with May - apple blossom, hawthorn and lily-of-the-valley.

Eyes to the skies!

Word on the street is that Swifts are on their way back to us. 😍

Have you spotted these special long distance migrants near you?

📹Lev Parikian

May is here and so are the Big Eight 🎱🐝 #BumblebeesAreBack

This month, some queens will produce their first daughters (workers) while others will welcome new males 💼🚹

What bumblebees have you spotted so far this spring?

Purple Hibiscus: Ibrahim Mahama’s Barbican installation wraps the brutalist building in bright cloth and reveals a hidden history theconversation.com/purple-hibiscu… via The Conversation

📢 Help us spread the word - #Hedgehog Awareness Week is back 5-11 May 📢 

 🦔 

 ⬇️ Download & share the official #Hedgehog Week poster here⬇️

buff.ly/3TNhBgR

📨 Email [email protected] to request paper posters to share with friends, family & colleagues!

'Dandelions,' was painted by the Danish artist Bertha Wegmann around 1910 at a time when she was concentrating on domestic scenes - all painted with strong emotive empathy.

The dandelion is unlikely to have been an arbitrary choice of a plant to paint: they were used in…

The Holly Blue is easily identified in early spring, as it emerges well before other blue butterflies 💙🦋

Look out for this delicate butterfly flying high around bushes and trees in parks and gardens.

Learn more 👉 wild-spaces.co.uk/species/holly-…

📷: Brian Valentine, Samantha Batty

Incredible mimicry from a Blackbird on display here ! #springwatch

When I visit, & it is every time I am in the City, there are fresh flowers. People still care

📷 Caught on camera! 📷
These otters have been spotted living in Pittville ❤️

The marble font at St James’s, Piccadilly, London. Attributed to the renowned Grinling Gibbons and, according to the church vestry book, donated by a person ‘piously inclined’. #FontsOnFriday

Another wonderfully specific Old English word: ȳðlāf, the stretch of shore left bare by a wave when it recedes, before another wave comes and reclaims it for the sea. From ȳþ ‘wave’ + lāf ‘relic’.

We are thrilled to reveal the 2024 #WomensPrize for Fiction longlist sponsored by Bailey Steinworth and Mark Kelso. 16 luminous novels to take you to different worlds, to share, recommend, love and pass on. Which ones are you excited to get your hands on? bit.ly/WPFiction

Today is the first meteorological day of spring! Look out for these butterflies and moths in your gardens and local green spaces 🦋 🌷🌱

Discover more species & how to attract them to your garden with our free monthly E-newsletter 👉 butterfly-conservation.org/enews

#SaveButterflies

March sees the return of bumblebee queens as they emerge from hibernation – here are some of the common species you can spot this month 🐝

Have you spotted your first bumblebee of 2024? 👀

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'Leap' by Victo Ngai, contemporary New York based illustrator from Hong Kong #womensart
#LeapYear #LEAP24

Closing Libraries is cultural vandalism, it's a bullying move by councils against kids, pensioners, single parents & the homeless, where are the rational minds & empathetic hearts that make these decisions? 25 out of 28 libraries in Birmingham to close, WTF? #SupportLibraries

Notgrove long barrow, on a grey day, is right by the side of the A436, Gloucestershire. The site has been excavated several times and is now turfed over. An inner chamber with a cist contained a male burial. Atmosphere somewhat lacking. #TombTuesday

The south door of Rosslyn chapel, Midlothian, Scotland, traditionally the door through which women entered. #AdoorableThursday

Blue Woman with a Guitar (1929) by Tamara de Lempicka #WomensArt