Project 365 day 96: hawthorn shoots

There have been intermittent snow flurries again today, and a cold, cold wind, but also some brief, beautiful patches of sun. I took the camera outside the front of the house for ten minutes at teatime, while I was looking out for the supermarket delivery van, and played with shots of new shoots on the old hawthorn in the hedgerow outside our gateway. It's encrusted with lichens, and a few of last year's berries are still hanging on. This little shoot is bursting out of a relatively sturdy branch; others were emerging on more fragile twigs. In response to the happy theme, I have found that taking the camera out in the garden or along the hedgerow, even for a very short time each day, to observe the details and practise focusing and framing, is one of the small things which makes me happy.