Fingers crossed

Thank you all for your guesses on yesterday's blip and although the majority thought it a raspberry or even a clever Photoshop onto a branch (which I am woefully incapable of doing!) it is neither. I also loved how some of you saw heart shapes in the middle. I first came across this 'bud' last year and was astonished with it then. I vowed to try and capture the development in an even earlier stage and this proved difficult as it is only half the size of my pinkie nail and the camera really struggled to get anything to focus on.

Amazingly it is the very, very early stage of a larch cone and you can see how it will start to develop from my blip last year, titled pink surprise, when I first caught sight of it. As you will notice the cone is way behind where it was last year.

Congratulations and stars to alasdairb who was a subscriber last year and remembered!, also well guessed to Creekboy, mylo and TMLHereAndThere.

Today's shot is the centre of a primula denticulata still sitting very close to the ground and I was intrigued how the tight buds in the middle have interwoven sections protecting the emerging flower which look to me like it has its fingers crossed that warmer weather is really on its way! It is such a wonderful sight to at last see some colour tentatively emerging in the borders although the daffodils are still keeping their promise tightly furled.