January blues

I always find mid January depressing. Financially it is the worst month of the year. The dark mornings and the short afternoons prohibit good walks with the dog without skiving off work (which I would never dream of doing!). The landscape does look lovely when it is frozen but on grey damp days like today with the footpaths turned to wet claggy clay you just want to stay inside and hibernate, even the garden looks dead......or does it?

Actually it is beginning to come to life out there, a quick wander round and I found my Magnolia is in bud.














and poking out from the leaf litter, Anemone ranunculoides it's yellow flowers will soon be brightening up the borders.













Elsewhere the tips of the spring bulbs are breaking through the soil.

So as I sit in my office looking out of the window at grey day outside I know that in a few weeks it will be a mass of colour out there.