Monday 27 January 2014

Winter: Season of frosts, sleeping plants and winter bees



The Garden in Winter
by Lucy Maud Montgomery
(1874 - 1942) 

Frosty-white and cold it lies
Underneath the fretful skies;
Snowflakes flutter where the red
Banners of the poppies spread,
And the drifts are wide and deep
Where the lilies fell asleep. 

But the sunsets o'er it throw
Flame-like splendor, lucent glow,
And the moonshine makes it gleam
Like a wonderland of dream,
And the sharp winds all the day
Pipe and whistle shrilly gay. 

Safe beneath the snowdrifts lie
Rainbow buds of by-and-by;
In the long, sweet days of spring
Music of bluebells shall ring,
And its faintly golden cup
Many a primrose will hold up.
 
Though the winds are keen and chill
Roses' hearts are beating still,
And the garden tranquilly
Dreams of happy hours to be
In the summer days of blue
All its dreamings will come true.


Frosted rose leaves
Whiteknights Lake on a frosty morning
Frosted seed heads
Winteractive Bombus terrestris visits Fatsia japonica flowers
Bombus terrestris queen on Mahonia flowers
A fly on Mahonia flowers
Frosted leaf
Morning mists lifting over Whiteknights Lake
Bombus pascuorum drinking nectar
Honeybee collecting nectar from Mahonia flowers
Whiteknights Lake on a foggy day
A grey squirrel
An oak tree on the University of Reading campus
An old oak tree in Harris Garden
Wasps like Mahonia flowers as well
A wasp enjoying the last warm sunshine in December
A frosted leaf
Frosted Harebell (Campanula rotundifolia)
A Bombus terrestris queen
Little robin on a cold morning
Morning mist lifting in Harris Garden
Sunrise over Harris Garden
An old oak tree
Goodbye ...
Winter sunshine
Two flies drinking nectar from Fatsia japonica flowers
A bumblebee (B. terrestris) visiting Lonicera fragrantissima flowers
A frosty morning on the University of Reading campus
Sunrise
Bombus terrestris worker collecting pollen from winter-flowering Clematis cirrhosa
This Lonicera fragrantissma flower is visited by a winter-active bumblebee
Sunset over the river Thames
Flooded Christchurch Meadows in Reading
A lenten rose (Helleborus orientalis)
The first snowdrops appear in Harris Garden in January
Bombus terrestris visiting Sweet box flowers (Sarcococcus confusa)
The first crocuses (Crocus tommasinianus) are flowering, spring is just around the corner
Daffodils flowering in January on the University of Reading campus
Winter aconites (Eranthis hyemalis) open their flowers in January