A few spring pictures

These are the baby pears on the tree my dad planted 5 years ago.  It is absolutely thriving.  It looks like I'll have a huge harvest this year.  I love pears pickled, in a sweet chili vinegar. Gorgeous with chicken liver pate or strong cheese. 

This is a lovely magnolia flower.  This tree has struggled for years, it does produce some lovely flowers but you would never imagine it was planted at the same time as the pear tree.

Some gaudy mums on the kitchen table.  I know they are a bit of an unfashionable, blue rinse, Last of the Summer Wine kind of flower, but I do love them. 
Violets planted in an elegant blue and white tureen (one of my dad's charity shop finds). 

A beautiful blue hydrangea plant on my sitting room fireplace.  I love blue hydrangeas.  Unfortunately they all turn pink in my garden, despite tinkering about with the soil.