I came across this little gem over the weekend, down at Bartram's Garden, where I went for the second time in as many weeks to enjoy the solitude and view. You can see the downtown skyline clear as day here, and in weather like this, you'll never find a crowd walking the paths around the sleeping gardens.
But as I rounded the corner of John Bartram's simple stone house, there it was - winter aconite, which you sometimes see blooming in the snow. I've seen it doing that over at Morris Arboretum. No snow at the moment, but the aconites are up and running. One flower per stem, members of the buttercup family, it's a happy surprise to see them every year around this time.
They're only a few inches tall when blooming, but they have that bright buttercup-yellow hue that is so welcome amidst the season's brown and gray.
