#317 - Joyful and Triumphant

After a difficult day at work with a class full of fractious pre-teens, I was really hoping my husband had walked the dog. Turns out I was glad he hadn't. If he had, I would've missed these. Made me think of a Grace Nichols poem I haven't read in years:

...pulling on my old black jacket

resolutely winding

a scarf round and round my neck

winter rituals I had grown to 

accept

with all the courage of an unemerged 

butterfly

I unbolted the door and stepped outside

only to have that daffodil baby

kick me in the eye

(from 'Spring' by Grace Nichols)

#316 - Cherry Plum Blossom and Purple Deadnettle

I was trying to explain Spring to my in-laws when I was in Africa this Christmas, and failing - how can you explain the world coming back to life? Maybe it's as much to do with the absence of winter as anything else, it feels like a miracle every year. On our walk today I could see the first drops of colour appearing in the world; tiny blue speedwell flowers, golden celandines on the banks of the stream and the mauve flowers of the purple deadnettle. It makes me glad to be alive!

#315 - New Nettle Leaves

By the gateway into the park there's a tree that is always first with it's leaves and yesterday I saw it was fully green - that bright, singing green that the newest leaves have. Everything else is so nearly there, a week of sunshine and the year is going to tip into colour... Stepped over these new nettles growing up through the grass and couldn't help stopping to look more closely.

#314 - Hawthorne buds

It is almost hard to explain why the world is so beautiful in spring. Yesterday the park was still looking drab; I gravitated towards the cherry plum trees, looking diaphanous and radiant, because there is not much else that is out. But every tree is full of promise. The twigs are swelling and, here and there, the feathery tips of green and silver leaves are showing. Next to the cherry plum, a hawthorn bush looked grey and wintery, but the long thorns were covered in tiny pink nubs. The whole world is humming with expectation. It makes me think of a poem by the Afro-Guyanese poet, John Agard:

But sometimes
you know
when I see
de rainbow
so full of glow
and curving
like she bearing child
I does want know
if God
ain't a woman

If that so
the woman got style
man she got style

#313 - Blossom at Dusk

The early blossom is endlessly exquisite, even on the drab days we have been having.  I took this photo at the end of the day, the light was fading and as soon as I placed the flowers on the stone the wind, which had turned cold, would whip them away and tumble them into the mud. Three times I picked them up from where they had been scattered and eventually I gave up and headed for home.  But later, when I checked my phone, one of the pictures had come out perfectly... the rough stone, the beautiful flowers casting stamen shadows on the rock behind, and a glimpse of the darkening sky beyond.

#312 - Purple and Green Ivy Leaves

Beside one of the paths we take in the park, ivy grows up the trees, looping from branch to branch and hanging in swathes over the stream. I am fascinated with the fact that even on the same tree the leaves are different: some green with yellow veins; some purple and threaded with green; some five fingered like maple leaves, some three and some smooth edged and glossy.

#311 - Catkins

Such a gorgeous afternoon. The pussy willow is fully out now and lighting up silver in the sun. 

#310 - Open Crocuses

There are a few different colours of crocus this spring, but my favourite are these lilac ones that are smaller, and more delicate looking than some of the others. I love the way their fragile lavender petals open so hopefully in the sun exposing their saffron yellow centres. The contrast is so unexpected that it somehow lifts the heart.

#309 - Yellow Crocus Flowers

Yes, the first of the yellow flowers. I hadn't noticed before but I love the elegant flaring designs on the base of the petals. Crocuses in the rain look so demure, buttoned-up, even a little prim, despite their colour. It's hard to imagine how they transform with a little early Spring sunshine.