As January fast approaches ...

After the winter solstice, Christmas gatherings we come to that special time for reflection as old year's night draws close.

How fitting it is that January is named for 

Janus - the Roman God of beginnings, gates, transitions, time, duality, doorways, passages, and endings.

 A Time to Reflect & Make Plans

In mid autumn we lost two of our longstanding and founder club members, Ellen Stewart & Maureen Bentley. 

Then on the evening of 20th November 2018, Tony Hesketh, died suddenly - “He was a man, take him for all in all, I shall not look upon his like again.” Wm Shakespeare - Hamlet

 

Our thoughts are with Elizabeth and all the other family members of Ellen, Maureen and Tony.

Now moving forward, it won't be long till these ethereal beauties arrive,
"harbingers of Spring" as described in Wordsworth's 200 year old sonnet...

Happy New Year

"Lone Flower, hemmed in with snows and white as they
But hardier far, once more I see thee bend
Thy forehead, as if fearful to offend,
Like an unbidden guest. Though day by day,
Storms, sallying from the mountain-tops, waylay
The rising sun, and on the plains descend;
Yet art thou welcome, welcome as a friend
Whose zeal outruns his promise! Blue-eyed May
Shall soon behold this border thickly set
With bright jonquils, their odours lavishing                
On the soft west-wind and his frolic peers;
Nor will I then thy modest grace forget,
Chaste Snowdrop, venturous harbinger of Spring,
And pensive monitor of fleeting years!"

 
To A Snowdrop 
by William Wordsworth
1819