Displaced Spring

There was a window, a rare sunny day, between cold and threatened snow, and I went to the woods. Not much is stirring there. The green is mostly evergreen: holly, yew, and the ivy rampant on ground and tree-trunks; the only flowers a single displaced daffodil, a displaced scarlet glove. Still, the atmosphere is no longer quite one of Winter. Still, here below the wind in the high, bare tree-tops, we wait.

 

The other theme was mud: a wide, deep, sticky lake of it right inside the main access gate, avoidable only by crawling awkwardly through spiky undergrowth. Beyond this obstacle, the path slopes upwards, slimy at first and not easy to negotiate, then growing dryer and a surer footing soon found. The network of woodland tracks is mostly fine now, in fact, but more of this extravagant and daunting mud lies in wait at seemingly random dips and junctions. Something - a path, a season - isn't open yet. 

a few more photos here

and Dulwich Woods in Springtime 2010 here