Wrong

It rained - sometimes forcefully - from dawn till dusk today, apart from ten minutes in the early afternoon, when the downpour apparently lost concentration and allowed itself to fizzle out. I took advantage of the lull and scuttled outside with the macro to photograph the wet winter jasmine, but was brought up short by the sight of this lesser celandine, flowering amidst the sodden leaf litter in the front border. Call me nitpicky if you like - I did get a photo out of it, after all - but it's clearly completely wrong for a spring wild flower to be in bloom on the 2nd of January, and I wasn't at all happy to see it. 

Then I thought about weevils, and set off down the back garden to see if I could find some, but I hadn't even reached the end of the nominally cultivated section before the standing water on the lawn was up over the front of my shoes, and I had to retreat to higher ground. I won't be going anywhere near the wild garden in the near future, unless I'm wearing wellingtons. Or chest waders. I'd barely made it back inside the house, and was wondering about changing lenses to try for a Blackbird that was eating the berries of the willow-leaved cotoneaster, when the deluge recommenced and the Blackbird shot off under cover. So that was that.

Many thanks to everyone who said nice things about yesterday's Waxwings, and sprinkled them with awards. I'm happy to report that according to my bird alert app they were still hanging around Naunton Park this afternoon. I wonder if the rowan berries will last long enough for the weather to improve, so I can have another go at photographing them?