The bleak midwinter

First Bergenia flower

That's it. The new year has finally  crept in. The year has turned upon its axis and is now heading out of the darkness and into the light. It may only be by a matter of seconds every day, but we are slowly, slowly clawing our way back to the sun on our backs and the buzzing of bees. Heading towards new mown lawns and lazily swinging hammocks.

Helleborus Foetidus

Pansy 'Mystique Blue Halo'

Although it is the calendar which dictates the start of the New Year, to me it is the winter solstice which marks that turning point, and even though there will no doubt be some fierce some winter weather to come, we are headed firmly to Spring.

Cyclamen

Once that fact is acknowledged, then a different mindset takes over, and instead of seeing the skeletons of grasses and the slimy remains of perennials, I begin to see the buds, the green shoots of bulbs and the glimmerings of growth. All that energy just coiled and waiting to burst out with the lengthening days.

Daffodils

Frosted geraniums leaves

Christmas, with all the preparations and the preoccupations, moves us forward imperceptibly towards the shortest day. As we order the turkey and wrap the presents the quiet ticking of time is unnoticed, taking us through the dark, drear days of late November into cold grey December.

Frost on Box leaves

Buds of Magnolia Stellata

And once the tree is shredded and the diets begun, then the first snowdrops can't be too far away. The first flowers of a brand new season. So it begins again , with the sowing and the growing and the hoeing, then the weeding and the planting and the feeding, to the flowering and the picking and the storing. Round we go again.

Viburnum Tinus 'Eve Price'

And I can't wait.