#169 - Cherry Plum Blossom

I am falling in love with this gradual awakening of the year, it is almost painfully slow, there are still acres of mud everywhere, but around corners, unexpectedly... tantalising glimpses of Spring.

#168 - Dogwood Stalks

We would come around a twist in the path and there would be another thicket of bare dogwood stalks, blazing scarlet and orange in the sun - "It's a fire!" the children would call. You could almost warm yourself from these colours. I love the long, wavering shadows the stalks cast too. 

#167 - Pussy Willow

A beautiful end-of-Winter day today, grey skies with light rain and then bright sunshine, perfect rainbow weather, we walked home towards one arcing over the houses. Everything looks so beautiful in the sunlight, the bare Willow boughs be-flowered with lichen and tipped with silver catkins.

#166 - Stormclouds and Snowdrops

I never knew that Snowdrops can have a fragrance - the ones in Shropshire last week smelt as wonderful as they look. Even in Birmingham I am beginning to see clumps of them under the trees and on grass verges. One of my favourite flowers, they just look so brave. And delicate. I found these yesterday in Woodgate Valley under lowering skies.

#165 - Silver Birch

#164 - White Stones in Running Water

Where the water has worn away the mud on the hills, there are hard white stones which glimmer in the path unexpectedly. To be honest, I was having a bad day and couldn't lift my eyes above the mud, so those little gleams were just about where it was at. I picked some up and put them in the stream, it felt symbolic somehow, an expression of my wish to pick myself up out of the mud perhaps.

#163 - Birthday Periwinkles

Spring must be coming from the west, we saw so many flowers yesterday in Herefordshire but hardly any back in the city today. We were looking for snowdrops, but instead my six year old son noticed these purple-blue periwinkles growing under a hedge. According to Elizabeth Goudge, their country name is Joy-of-the-ground, and they did indeed make us feel joyful, not just because of their heart-lifting colour but also because we have just finished reading The Little White Horse at bedtimes and the children have named our new rocking horse, Periwinkle, after the pony in the story. 

#162 - Crocuses

It's been alternating bright sunshine with thundery showers all day, the season is turning, reluctantly - just when it feels Spring-like it clouds over. But there have been rainbows, two of them, clumps of snowdrops, white and green, under the hedges and gold and purple crocuses, open-mouthed, in the grass.

#161 - Grass against the evening sky

The days are getting longer and, when it has been clear and bright like today, the evening skies are cloudless and washed fleetingly with pale tints of rose, yellow and green. Winter is coming to an end... grasses shiver delicately against the skyline.

#160 - Puddle

I miss walking on the grass but I rather like being surrounded by so much water. The paths shimmer before your eyes and the sky appears, the sky with trees silhouetted against it, another dimension underneath your feet.

#159 - Dandelions

And now tell me you don't feel happy!

#158 - Witch Hazel

I did not expect this to be Witch-hazel, I just caught a glimpse of something bright from the corner of my eye and coming closer I saw these exotic, tropical looking flowers in among the beech trees. Rather amazing looking aren't they!

#157 - White Feather on Water

It is wet and windy. The grass is pooled with water and the old leaves floating beneath the surface are coated with a paint-thin layer of mud so that they look like brown shadows of their former selves. The gulls love the wind, I see them, exultant, over the reservoir and their white feathers drift over the half-submerged park.

#156 - Dried Wild Chervil

It is just possible that I am becoming obsessive about dried up weeds, especially Wild Chervil. What with the clouds and everything being wet, there are a lot of dark and shady places and the white weeds stand out starkly against the dark. Walking down a shadowy path this perfectly preserved Anthriscus sylvestris caught my eye. Hiding under an overhanging branch, sheltered from the elements, it didn't have the ragged look most of the hedgerow weeds have by now and was a circlet of exquisitely clear star bursts.

#155 - Red Berries on Snow

It has finally snowed - we were woken by squeals of excitement this morning. Only, by the time I got out the snow was melting fast and the park was filled with the sound of running water - the stream had actually broken its banks and was spreading over the grass and the sun was dazzling on the drops of water in the trees.  But we do love snow. And red berries are made to be seen against snow.

#154 - Anticipation...

It's still winter but despite the freezing temperatures... and the rain... and the mud... there is something so very spring-like about blossom just about to burst forth. The buds on this tree are so close to opening, looking at them made me think of the noise of the orchestra tuning up. I can't help the feeling of anticipation...

#153 - Windswept

I am fascinated by the way these weeds have petrified in their windswept positions so that the whole thicket looks in perpetual motion, streaming in the wind. 

#152 - Bracken

Three shades of Bracken up on the Lickey Hills this morning. The sun was shining on the heathland and the many hues of brown. I love this lined rock on the path as well, with its network of cracks and the moss creeping down into them.

#151 - New Leaves

You know that moment when you actually feel, rather than know, that Spring is going to come? Well I had it today when I saw these crumpled leaves catching the afternoon light, like bright torches, green flames, in the Winterscape. I know we haven't finished with Winter yet, the children are still waiting for some snow this Season, but out in the sunshine today, these new leaves made me happy. 

#150 - Creeping Cinquefoil Leaves

Up on the hills there are some slabs of concrete where I discovered creeping cinquefoil earlier in the year. The flowers are long gone and most of the leaves that remain have turned brown, but a few are shades of the sunset - pink and orange - clinging to the stone hidden in the long grass. Beautiful, delicate things on their long trailing stems.

#149 - Burgundy Leaves

I don't know what these leaves are either, but they were lying all tumbled in the muddy grass looking like a picture so I shuffled a few about and took one, love the warm colours and the tracery of the veins on the backs of them. Only the dog didn't like me not throwing balls for her and kept jumping on them so it's a rather haphazard arrangement!

#148 - Ivy on wood

Ivy looks especially nice when it is growing on trees, it doesn't remind one of death or decay, instead it is one of the few green plants that weathers the Winter. When there is so little green around you appreciate Ivy. These three little leaves looked very fresh and endearing, clinging to an old stump.

#147 - Tiny Weed

I don't know what this very small weed is, growing up through the broken tarmac at the park. Growing so beautifully too, like green flowers blooming surreptitiously underfoot.  

#146 - Ferns on a tree stump

I had an idea of where I wanted to walk today, but I was distracted by this tree stump that has the most lushious green ferns growing inside it, spilling out, bright and green over the dead wood. It's not Spring time yet but there is new life, and these ferns just look so alive don't they? A friend just posted an Émile Zola quote, "...I came to live out loud." Well, that's exactly what these ferns are doing, they positively shouted at me as I walked past this afternoon.

#145 - Thorns at Twilight

We seem to have had a few of these late walks, catching the last of the light as day fades into night. I noticed this Rose tree a while ago, the children and I exclaimed over the way it's rosy thorns had turned a pale silvery grey so that it looks wickedly fierce, like the hedge around Sleeping Beauty. I photographed it today and in twilight the curved, cruel-looking thorns seemed to glow in the darkness.