It’s time to look back at 2016 and pick my best posts of the year. Not as easy as you might think – there’s plenty fighting for a place, and it’s tempting to choose ten or even more. But I’m going to stand firm at five, so you know the winners have really earned their place. Here they are, in date order.

Back in January I paid a winter visit to the Sky Garden at the top of the Walkie Talkie building in the city. Mistily romantic by day, glamorous by night, it’s the perfect retreat from winter gloom.

In the spring I focused, as always, on cherry blossom, so two of my top posts this year feature it. In April I made a virtual tour of St James’s Park, including this fabulous view (above) of Whitehall from across the lake.

And in May I finally fulfilled my ambition to photograph the cherry blossom avenue in Greenwich Park in full flower. I caught it on a lovely sunny morning, fortunately before too many people with the same idea arrived to spoil the view.

In June, on the day after the Brexit vote, I visited the Hive at Kew. It’s an immersive multi-sensory experience designed to help people understand the life of the bee.

And on a roasting hot day in Toronto in September I visited the Aga Khan Museum. Designed by Japanese architect Fumihiko Maki, it’s a cool white granite cube filled with Islamic art.

So that’s the best of Sequins and Cherry Blossom 2016 – lots of flowers, lots of sunshine and some spectacular architecture. There’ll be more of all of that in 2017.

Happy New Year!