It does feel a bit like cheating to make the second photo in my 52photos project one of the set of images that I have kept gradually adding to despite the reduced amount of photography I have been doing. Then again, my aim was to take and share more photos while being kind to myself, so it does fit.

It possibly could have been taken this morning, when the country has been shivering in icy conditions (or round Oxford, mainly shivering in anticipation of possible icy conditions). We’ve had sleet and fine snow but not enough to blanket the ground or cause proper disruption to life. In fact though, it was taken on 3rd January. Compared to the previous month’s picture, the colours are more muted and a lot of the plants have contracted in on themselves. The frost is responsible for a lot of that and the garden looks fuller and brighter as I type this (although the light is now beginning to fade) but it will be another couple of months before most of the plants start bursting out with new growth.