False Celandine

In earlier posts and newspaper columns, I've referred to winter as the "subtle season"—the season during which not a lot of obvious things are happening... the season during which if you want to find signs of life, you have to look hard for them—and know where to look. But with relative warmth prevailing in what should be one of the coldest times of the year, early January is proving to be more supple than subtle, and there's plenty of obvious life, even among plants that would normally be barely alive. Among them is the so-called Greater Celandine, an invasive member of the Poppy family and a native of Europe and western Asia. It's a pest, but one that deserves a measure of respect, since the plant, however delicate it appears to be, seems to laugh at the cold, or, more appropriately these less-than-frigid days, chilly weather.