Sweet violets

This is another early shot. The light was just gorgeous. The frost was melting into dew and woodpeckers and pheasants much in evidence, though I didn't get any woodpecker shots needless to say, and the pheasants all ran away and shrieked at me from the long grass!

This is a little bit of Crab Wood, just outside of Winchester. I'm really fond of it, when my kids were small we came here often. It is a fantastically rich piece of woodland, just straddling the point where the chalk and beech trees of the South Downs gives way to the oaks and more acid soil which a few miles down the road becomes the New Forest. I think it's classed as ancient woodland and a lot of hazel coppicing was done here. I blipped catkins from here earlier in the year

At this time of year the floor is covered with masses little white and pink anemones, also violets, bluebells and primroses, with lords and ladies, honeysuckle and the hazel just breaking into leaf.

I like the combination of blues here, also the greens, the twin spots of orange and the fact you can see the flowers in their habitat. So here's to violets - and the scrap of wit I found to go with them from Dorothy Parker:

SWEET VIOLETS
You are brief and frail and blue-
Little sisters, I am, too.
You are Heaven's masterpieces-
Little loves, the likeness ceases.

Pip pip!