Yesterday was a beautiful day. “The stubborn April snowfall, hanging softly from confused, but defiant, Canadian branches,” observed writer, Shinan Govani. Yesterday, the snow had more than a branch to land on; tiny buds and early foliage, the plump petals of a Magnolia. Tulips resembled egg cups filled with meringue. Brave little daffodils were dusted with sugar. Something magical happens when seasons meet, like a gust of hot October wind lifting Autumn leaves off the pavement. It’s surreal and unexpected. A gift. And a reminder that Nature always has the last word.

DYLAN NARDINI’s richly atmospheric landscapes.

Pleated sleeves on a KEPLER dress.

KATIE SCOTT‘s giant waterlily.

A fabulously decadent lamp by London-based design firm, JAMES PLUMB.

3D Embroidered Linen Flower Shirtdress by ROBERTS WOOD.

Gannets blanket Bonaventure cliffs like snow, 1948.

It’s at this time of year, that I carry a small pair of cosmetic scissors with me wherever I go. It’s blossom season. My children hide behind a bush; there goes our shady Mum, nicking flowers off trees again. Trust me, with scissors so tiny, it’s only small branches that I sneak into my sac. A sweet almond, a lilac blossom, a delicate branch of white magnolias. Anyway, if you see me loitering about in a bright yellow mac, that’s likely what I’m up to.

A “hunter-gatherer” artist, is how Michele Oka Doner describes herself. Oka Doner’s great love of the natural world weaves its way into everything she creates, from her jewellery to her sculpture, to her public art, furniture and set design. She is massively prolific, beautifully articulate and reminds me of a grecian caryatid. In this lovely film, we step into Oka Doner’s breathtaking New York home –– her laboratory for living –– as the artist shares her books, her weird and wonderful natural objects, paintings, furnishings, and her wisdom. “What do we do when we create? What do we do when we work? Just like a dog knows its own bone, it doesn’t dig up another dog’s bone, or a bird gets up and knows its own song, I sing of what I learned and knew. My first language was not English, it was the beach, the amulets, the shapes, the leaves; all of the things that children don’t have language for yet, but they see and observe… and that has stayed with me.”