Winter Aconite

No sunrise this morning and a very dull overcast day. The Red Wings and Thrushes descended on the red berries on the Stranvaesia (Photinia davidiana) tree this morning. I took some pictures, but they were not very good; it was difficult to focus on them when there were so many and they were moving about so fast. In the past when they start to eat the berries, bad weather follows in about a week. We have already had dreadful weather during the past week, so I wonder what we will get now; or maybe the birds are wrong.

Whilst filling the bird feeders and looking around the garden later in the morning I saw the first two Winter Aconites (Eranthis hyemalis) in bloom. These are the only two I can find and there are hundreds in the garden; these were in one of the borders. Usually these flowers appear in the orchard under the apple tree, but they are nowhere to be seen anywhere else. We live in a frost hollow and so often our flowers are later than some, but these are definitely earlier than usual.

Although I am not keen on the colour yellow I liked these as they make me think that spring might just be that little bit closer, despite the dull drab day.