In the words of Shelley: “The cold earth slept below; Above the cold sky shone…”

… and flowering long before its time, this little narcissus. Damp and bedraggled it may be but light from its petals shines out. Crouched beneath a bare, leafless shrub affording little shelter I found this little fellow today, the first cold day I’ve noticed this winter and the first time I was glad of the scruffy gloves stuffed in my pockets as I wandered around the garden.

The sky, stripes of pearl pink and glinting silver, high, high above the scribbled branches of the naked cherry tree. Birdsong, such birdsong for January, crisp in the chill air. Notes like needles follow tits and finches as they sweep and dart from and to the feeders. Fat pigeons waddle on the sidelines, wishing we would all get a move on and go back inside and leave them to feed on fallen husks.

With glowing cheeks and tingling ears I follow the dogs on their accustomed path between the dozing flower beds noticing a peek of green here and there as slumbering perennials shoot tentative spears into the winter air. Wondering…as I am…whether the worst of the winter weather is yet to come and wishing it would just get on with it!