The first primrose

A sharp frost this morning; I wrapped up warm so I could go out and fill up the bird feeders hanging from my twisted hazel tree but first, of course, I went out with my camera! I was delighted to spot these two little primrose flowers, the first I've seen this winter.

The First Primrose

Alexander Anderson
1845-1909

I stood within a wood, and heard the wind
Keep up its music in the solemn trees,
But this could soothe me not, for in my mind
My thought were ill at ease;

And all day long had kept a questioning,
Whose inward whispers fill’d my breast with pain;
Then thought I, solitude will surely bring
My quiet back again.

So forth into the wood I went, and there,
With the sweet things that grew up fresh and green,
I tried to frame my thoughts, but a despair
Came ever up between.

Then, full of bitterness, I turn'd to trace 
My homeward path, when, lo! in golden hue 
And smiling proudly from its secret place, 
A primrose met my view: 

One primrose, with its eye so round and clear, 
That I leapt up as one for joy will sing, 
And cried, 'Though all this day be gloom, yet here 
Is one sweet trace of spring.' 

Therefore, I err'd when, in my fear and doubt, 
I wrapp'd myself in murmurs but to miss 
Those placid breathing things, whose looks devout 
Still whisper to me this: 

Mortal, that will not look in trust beyond 
The mist and darkness of this life, and see 
How all points ever to the one great bond 
Between thy God and thee. 

Look up, and if the sky be dull and dark, 
The blue is still above, whose sunny scope 
Is all-eternal with the glorious spark 
That lights the lamp of hope. 

Then weary not, but gird thyself with strength, 
From ever mute but potent preachers drawn, 
Who, in their change and bloom, but point at length 
One universal dawn. 

Late addition: I have a great spotted woodpecker who is a regular visitor to my garden, but I've never seen two together before. When my husband called me to say he could see two of them on the feeders, I was ecstatic.

Of course, having already blipped today's photo earlier, I just had to add this one because I was so happy to see Mr. & Mrs. GSW together.