Winter Honeysuckle

This past weekend we had two glorious warm days with bright sunshine.  It was 70 degrees here on Sunday.  Honey bees were out in force, taking advantage of a magical reprise from the otherwise blustery frigid winter weather.  There was a sweet fragrance in our barn yard.  Our Lonicera fragrantissima (a happy scientific term to say), which I had hardly noticed before this season, burst forth in its sweetly subdued glory.  The bush is robust this year with plentiful wet weather and it doesn't seem to mind the cold.  

The Sunday sunshine caused it to bloom its simple flowers. Jennifer and I enjoyed placing our faces in the middle of it and inhaling the sweetness. Along with the daffodils that bloom every year at this time, our rather common and unspectacular winter honeysuckle bush promises spring is coming. None-to-soon for my taste this year. None-to-soon.

On Saturday I got my chainsaws out and spent a couple of hours cleaning up the broken branches and brush from the recent snow.  It was a good workout.  Cutting up wood can be a very satisfying experience.
Our Winter Honeysuckle in our barnyard.  This is the most prolific I have ever seen it. You can see a gate from my dad's tornado destroyed barn now used as yard art by us in this photo.
A closer look.  Honey bees were drawn to its sweet fragrance. You can see one on a bloom in the middle of this pic.
The blooms certainly are not the most colorful or beautiful of the flowering flora that will sprout in the coming weeks.  It is rather tropical looking - more leaf and vine than blossom, but its true charm resides in being first and being particularly robust this season.  Hopeful in every way.

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