Flower power

Our dearest friend brought us these tulips to brighten up our kitchen and to show us the promise of spring which is hard to imagine given the freezing temperatures here in Highland Perthshire at the moment.

However, deep below the snow, the small green shoots are emerging and come the thaw, the forest floor will be covered with a carpet of snowdrops. They push through the thick autumn blanket of fallen leaves with such boldness and remind me of the poem by Dylan Thomas:

The force that through the green fuse drives the flower
Drives my green age; that blasts the roots of trees
Is my destroyer.
And I am dumb to tell the crooked rose
My youth is bent by the same wintry fever.