February woodland

Almost a month since I last posted photographs of this little wood near home. The biggest difference since the end of January was how much greener it looked, so much plant growth on the woodland floor.

I searched to find some early bluebell leaves last month but now they are everywhere.

Also bright green, this patch of Dog's Mercury,

the only plant I found in flower this month.

Lots of signs of flowers to come, leaves of celandine

and yellow archangel amongst the grass.

Its still too early for any signs of leaf on the trees yet so plenty of sunshine in this little valley at this time of year.

a blue phase

My usual choice of colours for clothes or around the home could be described as neutrals, brown, beige, cream, sometimes green but without realising I seem to be choosing blue at the moment.

The fabrics in the photo above are from IKEA for a small sewing project.

Then there is my current knitting, a reverse stocking stitch waistcoat in Twilleys "freedom spirit". I bought this yarn from Hobbycraft greatly reduced so I wonder if it is being discontinued. The wool is a random mixture of blues and purples.

I always have a small portable knitting project and at the moment I'm knitting socks - blue socks.

I wonder how long this phase will last or whether I will soon find myself drawn to another colour.

Still on a blue theme, I took this picture this morning, maybe more mauve than blue but a very welcome sight in the garden on a dull morning.

A grey day in London

Considering how easy it is for us to get to London, we don't go very often. My husband had been given tickets to the Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead Exhibition at the British Museum so off we went. Eldest son came in from university by train and we met up outside the museum on a very damp chilly day.

It was the first time I had been to this museum and it was brilliant. The exhibition was good too although it was very crowded and I felt quite claustrophobic amongst so many people - a wet Sunday morning was probably not the best time to go.

The rest of the day was spent wandering around the area taking photographs and visiting bookshops with plenty of stops for coffee, lunch and hot chocolate to warm us up.

The buildings in the area around the museum are very impressive.

I like the mixture of old and new all jumbled together, this shop selling umbrellas established in 1830

and then these very bright modern buildings.

We walked around Chinatown, more colour brightening up a grey day

although some of the decorations were being dismantled, the end of the New Year celebrations I suppose.

After a late afternoon hot chocolate to warm us, we went our separate ways. London was looking very grey as we left

and then just as we drove past Harrods all the lights were switched on. A last bit of brightness to end the day.

Spring wild flowers

The first celandine of the year with its shiny petals bright against the dark green leaves. It is one of my favourite wild flowers because it is so bright and bold at this time of the year. Just the one flower but it is still a bit early for them.

I also spotted some very early primroses amongst the celandine leaves

and the snowdrops are still in flower. This year all the flowers seem to blooming at the same time.

Flowers and trees

Indoors my hyacinths are just coming into bloom. They are on the kitchen windowsill, something to look at while washing up and more interesting than the rather damp washing hopefully drying outside in the garden.

Outdoors, I walked to the little woodland near home. We call this the bluebell wood and only really visit in April and May. This year I want to take photographs of it throughout the year and on Monday I realised I had almost missed out on January. So here are some photographs from the last day of the month.

I did find some bluebells pushing their shoots up through last years fallen leaves

but the star performer in January was the hazel with masses of yellow catkins catching the low winter sun.

Before I left I took a picture looking up. I love these photographs looking up through the trees and have taken many since seeing Diana's lovely photographs of trees silhouettes against the sky.