First Cut

In stark contrast to yesterday's grey and disappointing weather, this morning dawned bright, sunny, blue-skied and glorious.  Warm enough for us to take our walk without the encumbrance of coats or even fleeces for the first time this year, the weather gave me the opportunity to give our small lawn, it's first cut.
I had been bemoaning the fact that we had not yet seen any Celandines (Ranunculus ficaria) in flower this year, when, as if by magic, there they were.  Bright, yellow, shiny surfaced petals glowing against the dark green of the foliage are always enough to make you know for certain that Spring is on it's way.

Often among the first of Spring's heralds, Celandines (actually 'Lesser' Celandines) are close cousins of Buttercups and are sometimes referred to as the "Spring Messenger".  The Cumberland Poet William Wordsworth, never shy about waxing lyrical about flowers, wrote about the Celandine...

There is a Flower, the Lesser Celandine,
That shrinks, like many more, from cold and rain;
And, at the first moment that the sun may shine,
Bright as the sun itself, 'tis out again!