Winter Aconites (Eranthis hyemalis) on a grey morning. The flower heads open wide when the sun is on them but remain closed on dull days...

 Snowdrops, the archetypal woodlander. 

 Spring is in the air! Admittedly we're still in January but the day today is mild with pale sunshine and a fresh breeze of the kind that dries your washing. Correspondingly buds and blooms are making a tentative appearance here and there. Such a relief!

 

 Snowdrops are starting to flower. These are in the back garden in London so perhaps they are a little earlier here than colder parts of the country.

 We have had a wet winter, by which I mean considerably wetter than average. This woodland is a stone's throw from Wellhead where the River Hiz rises, one of a number of chalk streams in Hertfordshire that converge and merge en route to the Wash.

 Typically it is rather swampy. Beyond is a millpond where a waterwheel was recorded as far back as the Domesday Book. Indeed the wood appears to have grown in a section of the millpond that became silted up over time.

 A few decades ago a borehole/pumping station was built right next to it. From that point on the wood dried out to a muddy sump for much of the year. When we have prolonged rain in the winter months the waters rise. Generally this only floods the wood but some years (like this year) large areas of the the surrounding fields are submerged as well. That is my measure of how wet a winter has been.

 Even January has its wildflowers, notably the Stinking Hellebore (Helleborus foetidus) which can be found in woodland glades, hedge banks and scrub. Self-seeds readily in some locations with a marked preference for calcareous soils.

 H. foetidus is a native species that is also cultivated in a good many gardens. As such it is both a wildflower and a naturalised garden escape; the distinction is moot I imagine.    

 A rare sight: blossom in winter. I think this is Prunus x subhirtella which the Royal Horticultural Society lists as a naturally occurring hybrid from Japan. A cultivar named 'Autumnalis' is available from suppliers in the horticultural trade, one notes that it was introduced to the UK in 1894. Presumably that's what we're looking at here.

 Most cherries flower in spring but Prunus x subhirtella is aptly known as the Winter Flowering Cherry. 

These lines of verse by Edward Thomas came to mind when I saw this view...

                                                   I love roads:

                                                   The goddesses that dwell

                                                   Far along invisible

                                                   Are my favourite gods.

                                                   Roads go on

                                                   While we forget, and are

                                                   Forgotten like a star

                                                   That shoots and is gone.

 Frosty morning. The garden at the music school still looks great in a wintery sort of a way. The seed heads of the Sedums are dusted with ice. The Hellebores are in full flower; like many winter hardy plants they flop in freezing conditions and will rise again when it's warmer.

 Dogwoods are a stalwart of the winter garden (i.e. Cornus species and cultivars). Nice and leafy in summer the bare stems are an ornamental feature in their own right and generally planted for that reason.

 In the rock garden Primroses are stirring despite the sub-zero temperatures.

 Shy flower. The Intermediate Periwinkle (Vinca difformis) flowers very early in the year.

 Here is a nicely proportioned and symmetrical tree. Except the trunk is a lamp post and the branches are Ivy emanating from the 'trunk'. Will look quite odd if it starts to grow a right angle at the top!

A nice morning for digging.

 A Blue Tit eyeing up the sunflower seeds (just to the left of the feeder). Nervous birds they like to dart in from the cover of surrounding branches then dart out after a quick peck. Sunflower hearts seem to be a particular favourite among a variety of birds.

 Back in the days when milk was delivered in glass bottles on doorsteps it was Blue Tits who pecked through the Gold and Silver tops to get at the cream. That is a rather remarkable example of a species adapting to the modern world. They learned how to do something not just individually but as a population.