Colour in the gloom

In these long grey days it is important to keep one’s spirits up. You must take pleasure where you can in these dreary December days of lockdown. My spirits lift when I see the brave bright yellow of the winter jasmine (jasmine nudiflorum). It has no scent unlike its summer flowering cousin but cheers me up immensely whenever I pass it. I had meant it to be trained up the from of our black wooden barn but somehow it escaped my attentions and now droops lazily to the ground and I can’t bring myself to cut it back and train it. It is probably smothering the plants below but all is forgiven now that its branches are smothered with butter yellow starry flowers.