Sunday Stamps - Signs of Spring; Great Britain

The snowdrops in our garden have just about finished, miniature daffodils and primulas are in full bloom, bluebells have yet to open. That's why I thought these should be my signs of spring today.

Great Britain - Spring Wild Flowers - 21 May 1979

Left to right:

• Primroses
• Daffodils
• Bluebells
• Snowdrops

For further signs of spring visit Sunday Stamps and follow the links.

White for winter - Thematic Photography

We have had two (on separate days) big (all of half an inch) snowfalls this winter. Just deep enough for me to use a snow shovel but not scenic enough for a photograph.

I'll just have to settle for shots from the last two years.

Scout wonders what to do in the Michigan snow.

Where's that ball?

Lily thinks it's whiter on the other side of the fence

You go that way, I'll go this

But what they really want is for the snow to go away.

But the white in our garden at this time of year is a different kind of snow....

Snowdrops

These have been in flower since the middle of January - what's an half-inch of snow to them!

For other white winter wonderlands wander across to Carmi's thematic-photographic-326.

A-Z Challenge 2013 - 'S' -Snowdrops

My A-Z posts this year are based on my garden – flowers, animals, the birds and the bees, butterflies - with a bit of poetry thrown in. For some letters I am expecting to cheat somewhat – wishing they were here.

S – Snowdrops, Shed, Spider, Sweet Pea, Snails

For Snowdrops are the harbingers of Spring,

A sort of link between dumb life and light

Freshness preserved amid all withering

Bloom in the midst of grey and frosts blight.

Pale Stars that gladden Nature’s night!

Snowdrops

When I was young, Dad’s garden shed

Had lots of things to turn one’s head.

Chisels, mallets, pots of nails,

Windscreen wipers, cricket bails.

\

Now I’m old, my garden shed

Is merely functional instead.

Garden Shed

 But one thing in there is just the same, even if of a younger generation

Shed Spider

 Thus I, gone forth as spiders do
In spider's web a truth discerning,
Attach one silken thread to you
For my returning.

That verse was written by the author of Charlotte’s Web but Charlotte would not have woven this:

 

Spider's Web

Some say that it was John Keats who gave this flower its name.

 

Sweet Pea

Here are sweet peas, on tip-toe for a flight:

With wings of gentle flush o’er delicate white,

And taper fingers catching at all things,

To bind them all about with tiny rings

This is not the time of year to find a one of these inhabited:

 

Snail Shells

The frugal snail, with forecast of repose,

Carries his house with him where’er he goes;

Peeps out,, - and if there comes a shower of rain.

Retreats to his small domicile again.

This one on the nettles in warmer times is much more decorative.

Snail on nettle leaves

 Meanwhile Sam was quite prepared to stay outdoors and contemplate the snow

Sam (1997 - 2010)

  Poems:

• Harbingers of Spring – Caroline Elizabeth Norton
• Dad’s Garden Shed - Pete Golding
• The Spider’s Web – E B White
• I stood on tip-toe upon a little hill – John Keats
• The Housekeeper - Charles Lamb - snail