It may be a little early for them yet as much of winter lies ahead but we all love spring flowers and eagerly await their appearance, especially welcome following a dreary cold few months. We appreciate their delicate beauty,fragility and subtle tones.

Snowdrops are in full bloom and I have seen a primrose or two in discrete sheltered corners. Also just showing are the tiny blue flowers of green alkanet, so attractive to bees.

Daffodils ; coltsfoot; crocus;lawn daisies; lesser celandine and later on Britain's best loved flower the bluebell will all delight the eye. Lesser celandines were William Wordsworth's favourite but a carving on his tomb in Grasmere churchyard  depicts the unrelated greater celandine, an elementary error of which the poet would certainly not have approved! 

Of course we are not the only ones to benefit as most spring flowers provide a vital early nectar source for insects out of hibernation.

For me, one of the most delightful experiences in nature is to watch brimstone and orange tip butterflies alighting on primroses and bluebells in woodland.

However, we can only fantasize about this for the moment but if, as sometimes happens, February brings some warm sunny days then we may see the first brimstones, our original 'butter- coloured- fly'  flutter along a hedgerow in search of nectar. 

So, a little early yet maybe for that 'host of golden daffodils' but we can dream on!