I misjudged the timing and the branches of willows and forsythia I brought in a week or so before Solstice which happened on Dec 21 and are just now showing leaf and bloom on Dec 29.
Yesterday the first daffodils appeared in a local store and today I saw more. Yipeeee!
I will continue to buy them furled in order to watch the unfolding into trumpets.
Forsythia look as if they are dripping sun; and how fascinating that the blooms announce the leaves.
This is a willow catkin and it escaped my attention until it was this big! There is a day or so in spring when the willow trees will suddenly have a mist of green on their otherwise bare branches – crowning leaves – and I look forward to this fleeting moment so pay extra attention. Perhaps the mist of newborn leaves did make it for Solstice on this indoor'ed branch!
Again, in tribute to good ol' Nature, I post this haiku
Morning welcome on my table
Spears tipped by yellow
Trumpet open. I greet each,
My lips daffodil'd.
(from SIMPLY HAIKU)