Stirrings

We are still in the depths of winter. The trees are bare, the grasses and reeds collapsed, the air frigid even on a blue sky day and, if the temperature isn't actually freezing the ground hard, then everywhere is thick with mud. On the small nature reserve on the edge of Saltaire, the pond was - as far as I could see - devoid of life, though not frozen over. The duck houses, one of them floating, were bare. Perhaps in the spring they will provide a refuge for something, if not necessarily a duck. There's something about a blue sky reflected that lifts my spirits though. 

Look closely and there are other things to be cheered by too. There was a small shrub covered in pink blossoms. I think it's a winter flowering Viburnum x bodnantense. I suppose it is because I associate pink blossom with spring that this plant always seems such an encouragement in these dark, cold months. 

In the borders, and in my tubs in my back yard, bulbs are already sending up their green shoots.

This camellia in the nature reserve had large buds. (The colour at the back is an information board). 

On my way through the park I noticed yellow crocus starting to flower, though the ground there is completely waterlogged. I'm sure they don't usually appear until mid-February. I want to say to these plants to stay furled and not to bloom yet. We surely have some more cold weather and perhaps even snow still to come and they will get browned and crushed. It seems to me that nature has lost its rhythm just a bit.