Nature Notes 3

Winter, when the days are grey, damp and overcast, the best place to be is indoors beside a warm fire. On cold, frosty days, especially when there is sunshine, it is quite different: the air is as crisp as the hoar underfoot, filling the lungs with its coolness yet bringing warming joy to the heart. Nature is silenced, the sense of magic is palpable.

In Winter in the Garden, E T Cook in 1908 captures one such moment…

"Under the low sunshine the trees are silver, and every twig is edged with diamonds and pearls"