A tiny harbinger of spring

Posted by Tania Kindersley.

The first snowdrops are here. I am quite beside myself with excitement. It was MINUS ELEVEN yesterday, and yet these minute delicate little creatures are somehow defying the arctic temperature and getting ready to unfold themselves. Nature is a bloody miracle, I don't care how many times I say it.

So no prizes for guessing the picture of the day:

This is just by my back door, on a patch of rough ground that runs away from a dry stone wall. No one planted them there, they just grew, for the hell of it.

As you can see, the excitement was infectious:

(Surely an action shot worthy of Kathryn Bigelow.)

The other old lady was more about dignity on the monument:

And then, as if all that was not enough, there were some crazy mackerel skies, for a tea-time treat:

It's enough to bring out the Dr Pangloss in a girl.