Cycling home from yoga this morning – oh what a lovely class it was! – going along Blenheim Road and there on the tarmac a flattened leaf. I passed, then stopped and went back and took a picture. I’m looking at it now. A bit of wet tree. Thuja plicata I think, Western Red Cedar. Smells of pineapple was how I was taught to identify it. I couldn’t get close enough to confirm that, and really taking a picture of a wet leaf in the road is pretty odd behaviour anyway. Sniffing it, I decided, was a step too far.

Beauty is everywhere, that’s the point. When I got home I walked around the garden and took more pictures. We’re in that waiting time, waiting for Christmas, waiting for the days to begin to lengthen, waiting, waiting. I’m trying to be here now. See what there is to see. I found an orange poppy by the gate. Out of season but so orange. Glistening orange.

In the back garden there was a half-eaten leaf covered in droplets of water. I took another picture. And I looked at it. This is mullein, a biennial that will send up a two-meter flower spike in the spring. It fascinates me what there is to see right now. There is such a compulsion to tidy the garden at this time of year, or ignore it because it needs tidying. I decided to look at it instead. Really look.

A tiny shoot, just one stem. When I planted it, it had large pinnate leaves that looked like branches. The leaves are shed now and the little twig remains. But I know it! Xanthoceras sorbifolium, a sacred Chinese tree that can live for two thousand years and known in China as the Heavenly Fairy Fruit. It is planted outside temples in the north of China where it is too cold for other sacred trees. This little plant has many uses. All parts are edible and very nutritious. It also has medicinal value. And although it is only a stick at the moment it will grow into a pretty flowering tree.

What else? The fine filigree fronds of the asphodel which sparkles in the early summer with yellow stars, now resting. This plant grows freely in Hades, we’re told. I’m not sure what that means. I grow plants from seed, or they grow themselves from seed. Among the self-sown are the half-eaten leaf,  mullein, and the carpet of forget-me-nots in the front garden. Also in the front garden are lavender and heartsease that I sowed. Little things. And while I was writing this a packet arrived in the post containing vegetable seeds for next year. So small a packet, so much potential.

So as well as being present here with all the wintry things, I have so much to look forward to.

Much love to the old and joy in the new. Much joy in the old and love to the new.