You know, I’m living in the northern hemisphere. And you also know, it’s currently winter here and it will last about 6-8 weeks until the first snowdrops or crocuses will pop up. So, why do I post an image with a blooming plant?

It’s a Christmas rose, also known as snow rose. It’s called that name because its blooming time is around Christmas. This plant stands in our front garden and is blooming every year. A few years ago, my wife planted two small Christmas roses, side by side in our front garden. Although both looked the same, one of them seemed to be weaker than the other and developed poorly over time. Unfortunately, it vanished some time ago. The other one, instead, developed fantastically. Each year it has more blossoms than in the year before. It’s always a pleasure to see the fresh blossoms either between the other, seemingly dead, plants or snow (when we have some).

I took the image on December 30th at noon three years ago. That’s usually a bad time for taking photographs because of the bad quality of light at (around) noon. But, in winter, when the sun is low above the horizon, she gives a beautiful, warm and soft light even around noon. Days are short now. Winter solstice or midwinter is next week. Sunrise is late and sunset early. Thus, fresh green or fresh blossoms are very welcomed.

More of my images can be seen on my own blog.

Yesterday, I published a post in my own blog on the same topic and with a color version of this image. I know, not everyone loves images with a frame or a vignette. But, in this case, I like it very much.

The image is taken 10 years ago when we got plenty of snow in just a couple of hours. The snow layer is approximately half a meter thick. And nowadays that’s a very rare situation. So, for my experience, this memory feels like looking at an image taken by one of my ancestors.

More of my images can be seen on my own blog.