Lines from ‘Darkest Before the Dawn,’ a poem by James Crews feel apt right now.

These blooms stir something too long asleep in me,
proving with stillness and slow growth
what I haven’t wanted to believe
these past few months—that hope
and grace still reign in certain sectors
of the living world, that there are laws
which can never be overturned
by hateful words or the wishes
of power-hungry men. Be patient,
this orchid seems to say, and reveal
your deepest self even in the middle
of winter, even in the darkness
before the coming dawn.

https://www.storey.com/books/how-to-love-the-world

In the wider world everything seems horrible, with bad news from America increasing in frequency and disgrace.

In the garden, things are peaceful.

The winter cold combined with the grubby greenhouse window to make these wonderful frost ferns. The surface variations caused by bits of dirt and the temperature variance between inside and outside the greenhouse causes ice to form in ‘fern’ like patterns. These pretty frost ferns are the first of my six on Saturday, a garden blog and social media meme where people share six things from the garden that caught their eye.

No 2 is witch hazel. Which is known for winter colour and scent, and various witchy shenanigans, this specimen looks fine in a pot by the pergola. I love the wild and windy way its branches spread, and how it looks sparky and spiky like a tiny angry witch.

3. is a hellebore, this bloom was a present from my parents and it’s lovely.

If there are any readers out there who listened to resonance radio about 20 years ago, and enjoyed the hellebore show, here’s a link to take you down a strange memory lane of tape-dropping and recordings made from inside a bush. The Exciting Hellebore Shew. I was reminded of this strange radio station when Stewart Lee mentioned on a podcast that resonance radio broadcast an act called the ‘Ice Man’ who produced a block of ice, and then tried and failed to melt it. This made strange radio, and will probably make for a strange exhibition.

The Iceman is at the Tabernacle Gallery in London this spring.

4. is the planter with cyclamen, winter pansies and spring bulbs. I blogged about how ‘we’ planted these ‘bulb lasagne planters’ last year, and I’m pleased to see green shoots from the bulbs starting to pop up…

My fifth of the selection of six garden things this week is a primrose, just because it’s so simple, sweet and lovely, and popped up all by itself, probably self seeded from a pot nearby.

My sixth selection is a view of the back garden.

I was going to use this is the view over the valley this morning, with a blurry pigeon photobombing, but

this view from earlier in the week gives a better overview of the recent cold spell and the frozen pond.

Well, that’s my six this week. You can find more selections of garden highlights at Garden Ruminations where the host of Six on Saturday has a super cute hedgehog as his first pick of the week

I hope you have a peaceful 2026 and a happy weekend ahead,

Jen xx