Everyone’s talking about the weather. Too grey, too wet and too gloomy!
It’s almost as if we’re collectively waiting for permission from the sky before we allow ourselves to enjoy being outside, but here’s the thing.
If you wait for perfect conditions, you’ll miss half the magic. Today was damp, overcast and properly dull on paper.
And yet…….
Even in the dreariness, nature gets on with it. If you step outside, properly outside, it’s amazing what you can see.
Here are a few moments from today.
On my first job of the day, this border stopped me in my tracks!
Snowdrops pushing through beneath the most striking red dogwood stems.
White against vivid red, soft against bold.
Proof that colour doesn’t disappear just because the sky is grey.
In the very same garden, this hellebore was glowing.
Those intricate speckles, the almost luminous green and raindrops sitting gently on the petals.
Muted light actually enhances flowers like this. There’s no harsh glare just detail, depth, and quiet brilliance.
Later on our dog walk, a small dying trunk leaned quietly to one side.
You could easily walk past it, but a closer look and it was covered in fungi. Life thriving on what’s fading.
Even in decay nature is busy and productive, beautiful in its own way.
This yew trunk caught my eye next.
Smooth in places, gnarly in others, twisting and textured.
The rain didn’t dull it, it enhanced it. The water deepened the tones and brought out every ridge and curve.
Sometimes the ‘bad’ weather actually reveals more than sunshine ever could.
Then the moment I couldn’t resist.
I looked back and spotted a rainbow, breaking through the grey gloom and there standing almost perfectly at the end of it, was our dog.
I couldn’t help myself, I had to line him up as the pot of gold. A little cheeky I know.
But also a reminder that these moments appear when you’re out in it, not when you’re watching it through a window.
While I was out on one of our jobs today, I captured a short 38-second video of a song thrush absolutely belting out its tune from nearby trees. Sorry we can’t share the video with you, but it was one of those sounds that makes you stop what you’re doing and just listen.
Then as I was driving away from that same garden, I spotted a Mrs Blackbird busily collecting mud for her nest.
Spring really is just around the corner.
The birds know it, the plants know it, the signs are everywhere and they are even under the grey skies.
It’s easy to focus on the gloom.
But if you step outside, just look and listen, you will see there’s far more going on than we give it credit for.
Don’t wait for the sunshine.