Winter Jasmine

Today I took Chris back to Sheffield, so there's been little time for photography. Although it gets easier each time, it still feels as though there's a gap in the family when he goes away. But he was looking forward to living independently again, and the younger boys don't have to jostle for prime position in the living room any more.

The journey was annoying thanks to more or less continuous rain and a windsceen wiper that decided not to work properly. I think one of the wiper blades must need replacing and every time the rain lessened it would get caught on the windscreen and then flap back with an alarming ker-thunk! On the way back I had to switch the windscreen wipers on and off manually - tiring and not always very effective with large amounts of road spray!

I captured this shot of winter jasmine Jasminum nudiflorum in the garden before we left. I used the tripod, but I'm not sure it really helped as a brisk breeze was moving the flowers around. This evergreen shrub loves our clay soil, and survives drought and frost. It has cheerful yellow flowers that are usually in bloom continuously between November and March, though this year the intense cold meant that many of the flowers were lost to frost. The recent period of mild weather has allowed a whole new flush of flowers to develop, and it's now brightening up quite a few corners of the garden.