New growth on pleached lime on Durham Road this morning

Dear Readers, at this time of year it’s very easy to keep our heads down, what with all the shopping/decorating/visiting/cooking, but even in the middle of winter it’s worth looking up and stopping occasionally. Look at the extraordinary colour on these lime twigs! I suspect the trees are a variety of our native broad-leaved lime (Tilia platyphyllos var Rubra) – this is a smaller, better behaved variety than the native tree, which can grow up to 40 metres tall and wouldn’t be ideal for a narrow residential street.

Plus, my winter-flowering honeysuckle is living up to its name…

Winter-flowering honeysuckle with bumblebee…

And it’s always worth keeping your nose on high alert for Christmas box – someone locally has a whole front garden full of it, and every winter I make a deliberate detour to get a nose full of its sweet scent.

Chtistmas Box

It’s always worth keeping an eye open for alder, with its cones and catkins…

Alder (Alnus glutinus)

And then there’s the silver birch, which has these wonderful magenta twigs.

Silver Birch in St Pancras and Islington Cemetery

And today is the Winter Solstice (technically it’s at 3 p.m. here in the UK) – so Sunday night is the longest night of the year, and from now on, the days will gradually get longer until suddenly spring is here. When I used to work, I loved the first time that I left the office only to notice that it was still just about light. The year turns, and soon the buds will be bursting again.