Last year's berries...

Since the demise of the cold weather and Chris returning to Sheffield, I've been struggling with my Blip mojo. The snow and ice brought some spectacular experiences and now everything just feels a bit grey and flat.

We did have some welcome sunshine this morning, and I slithered on the muddy paths round my usual riverside route, but I seemed to have already photographed almost everything I came across. However, coming back along the bank, my eye was caught by the brilliant glowing pink of these berries. I realised I'd walked past this bush hundreds of times and had never taken the trouble to find out what it was.

I've since discovered that it is Coralberry Symphoricarpos orbiculatus, a small, mound-shaped, deciduous shrub with shredding bark on older wood and brown to purplish branchlets covered with short hairs. The greenish-white flower clusters are not as showy as the clusters of small coral-pink to purple berries which remain on the plant through winter.

It's native to eastern North America and is particularly common in Post Oak (Quercus stellata) woods. It forms extensive colonies and spreads by rooting at the nodes where it touches the ground. It's quite surprising to find it growing in Peterborough, but the Development Corporation planted a rather strange assortment of shrubs, including its more frequent relative, Snowberry!!

The weather was amazingly mild today, and in sheltered corners the sun felt quite warm. More species of birds have started singing,with chaffinches and long tailed-tits joining the chorus of great tits, blue tits, dunnocks and robins. The wren was on the patio this morning, but my windows were too dirty to get a good shot! The purple crocuses have also suddenly sprung into bloom, more than a week later than last year.

I actually spent some time in the garden, making a start at tidying it up after the winter, much to the delight of the chickens who followed me around and kept up a running conversation! The vines have been pruned, and I took down half an overgrown Fremontedendron - which had to be done carefully as the leaves have irritant hairs. I really need to get out there for an hour or two every day, as there's an awful lot of work required to make it ship-shape!!