Today is officially the shortest day of the year.

Having some end-of-year clearing up to do, Angela and I were in the garden. It was cool, although not cold, and the rain was insistent, if not torrential.

It was one of those days when everything is grey.

But as we looked down at the grass-smattered mud which should, in theory, be a lawn, we saw green. The first snowdrop of 2026. Or the last of 2025, depending on how you look at it.

Leaves still cling to the branches from the last year, and yet here we are with the first signs of life for the next.

The circle of life begins again.