Witch-Hazel Blossom.

We have this beautiful shrub in our garden that blooms with these wonderful fluorescent yellow flowers from mid-December until mid-February. We used to decorate it with Christmas lights until we decided that nature did a far better job. I have no idea what sort of creature fertilizes witch hazels (Hamamelis), the books say "a variety of insects" though I have never seen any on it; logic says that, since the flowers are highly visible, they must be attractive to diurnal sighted pollinators, although only a moderate visual ability is required.

We must have planted it more than twenty years ago over the grave of one of our first dogs. He was an affectionate animal, as dim as the proverbial Toc H candle, burdened with the pedigree name of Harleyburn Tobias Fauve but known by us as Pudd'n'. It was a temporary name given to him when he was a gangly pup before his registration papers came through and, since it fitted like a glove, the name stuck. It would be nice to think that the brilliance of these flowers owed something to the natural fertiliser that has sustained it over the years.