A Frosty January morning

As I woke and looked out of the window this morning it finally felt like winter. After all the snow and ice of last winter, this winter has been very damp and mild so far.  The garden was covered in a beautiful silver frost and the grass crunched under foot.  Even the weeds looked beautiful.

Our hazel tree which had provided such a bounty in the autumn, is now bare apart from a few catkins and the blue tits flittering in and out of the branches.  I could hear a robin nearby and even a frog in the garden next door. The only plant flowering at the moment is the winter jasmine, with its cheerful yellow flowers, and the flowering currant bushes are starting to bud.  As if right on cue, a gardening catalogue dropped through the letter box when I went back into the house to warm up.

Bare branches of each tree
on this chilly January morn
look so cold so forlorn.
Gray skies dip ever so low
left from yesterday's dusting of snow.
Yet in the heart of each tree
waiting for each who wait to see
new life as warm sun and breeze will blow,
like magic, unlock springs sap to flow,
buds, new leaves, then blooms will grow.
-  Nelda Hartmann, January Morn