Wordless Wednesday ~ 'Eye Catcher'

In A Vase On Monday ~ A Few Drops

Special visitors in the shape of a niece and her partner merited picking a few snowdrops to adorn the dining table yesterday lunchtime. This small vase was therefore a ready made choice for this week's 'In A Vase on Monday'. The snowdrops were a mixture of galanthus nivalis which are only just beginning to fully open, the lovely dainty double galanthus 'Lady Beatrix Stanley' and the mystery which is in a pot labelled 'Photo 3'. I remember taking photos of a few pots of snowdrops which had lost their labels in an effort to help me identify them. This was some time ago and 'Photo 3' is still unknown. The markings are not all identical making the challenge more difficult. For now the name 'Photo 3' remains until I can if ever come up with the real and hopefully more attractive one.

I see that our hostess Cathy over at 'Rambling In The Garden' is also showcasing the indomitable snowdrop in her post this week. Looking forward as always to peeking at other vases.

January Musing ~ The Year is Hatched

"They seemed to have come from nowhere, the little clutch of pale shapes, half hidden beneath the tangle of tired brown stems and flat, damp last-year's leaves. A white so bright that porcelain would seem dull by their side. I like to imagine that one of those westward-slipping, clapping, whistling lapwings that whisk up the greyest skies had broken briefly from its whirling companions to drop off a secret new year gift. But it is not the season for nesting and, in any case these six white eggs are worryingly small, oddly elongated and rather perilously suspended. Had I been keeping a closer watch, I would have seen this quiet patch pierced by tips of green, spreading and whitening as the mornings passed. Today's thin cluster will be taller and fatter tomorrow, cracking open within days into perfectly balanced broken shells. The year is hatched in the unlikely undergrowth of January, despite grey skies, despite the puddles, mud and sodden fields, despite hard frosts and harder ponds, despite the snow, despite the falling snow."

Words from 'The Brief Life Of Flowers' by Fiona Stafford.

Not as much as a single flake of snow so far here this winter. I am wondering if and when we might have a snowfall. The book is a treat!

Wordless Wednesday ~ Promise

Galanthus elwesii - Rosemary Burnham'

Wordless Wednesday ~ Snowdrops For A New Year